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A hospital can postpone an operation.

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Your life cannot always wait.

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One patient told Healthwatch they became virtually

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housebound while waiting for a hip replacement,

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from February twenty twenty to August twenty

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twenty-one.

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That is the human side of the

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waiting list.

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Now zoom out: England has seven point

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three seven million treatment waits, representing about

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six point two million different people.

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Follow the line from two thousand and

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seven.

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It fell, then rose.

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The pandemic made a difficult position much

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worse.

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Since the twenty twenty-three peak, the list

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has come down.

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But it remains about sixty-one percent above

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February twenty twenty.

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Both things are true.

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What about how people feel?

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Satisfaction with the NHS was thirty-six percent

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in nineteen ninety-six, reached seventy percent in

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twenty ten, and was twenty-six percent in

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twenty twenty-five.

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There is a recent improvement here too:

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satisfaction rose from twenty to twenty-six percent

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in one year.

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Yet just over half remained dissatisfied.

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Health is also an economic issue.

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Around two point seven million working-age adults

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are outside the labour market because of

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long-term sickness.

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That does not mean the waiting list

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caused every lost job.

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It means treatment, workplace support and household

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income belong in the same conversation.

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For England, the published ambition is ninety-two

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percent of waits within eighteen weeks by

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March twenty twenty-nine.

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The August figure was sixty-five point two

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percent.

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So track faster treatment, enough staff, safe

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discharge and support while people wait.

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Count the lives getting moving again, as

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well as the list.

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Follow the waiting times, the public mood

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and what could change at www dot

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uk-statpack dot co dot uk.