People from certain ethnic groups and those living in deprived areas are waiting longer for public healthcare in England, an analysis has shown.
Researchers found Black children and young people wait longer in emergency departments than other ethnicities, while people from poorer areas seem to be waiting longer for planned care.
Waiting lists have shot up since the pandemic, when many procedures were cancelled. Factors like underfunding and short staffing have made it hard for the country to recover from COVID-19.
Around 6.33 million people were waiting for elective procedures in August — a figure that remains stubbornly high as demand persists — according to hospital performance data released on Thursday.
Emergency services have been facing extreme pressure for years now, with high demand and poor patient flow through hospitals driving delays.
Nearly 40,000 patients waited on trolleys in emergency departments for more than 12 hours in September 2024. That’s 18% more than last year and 36% more than in August.
Think tanks the Health Foundation and the Nuffield Trust combed through official waiting time data for emergency and planned care, as well as a government survey on hospital waits, to find out who was being worst affected by delays.
More than 20% of people in England are likely waiting for some kind of public health appointment, test or treatment, the researchers found.
Black patients under 40 years old are “consistently” waiting longer in emergency departments than people of other ethnicities, the analysis found. Those aged 19 or younger are waiting an average of 21 minutes longer than white patients of the same age.
Women have also been hit hard, with the number of people waiting for gynelogical care more than tripling over the last decade.
Back in May 2014, just under 185,000 people were waiting for gynaelogical appointments. In May 2024, that number had grown to 597,000.
People attending emergency departments for psychological issues are waiting an average of three hours longer than those attending for physical reasons.
Some mental health patients spend days and even weeks in emergency departments waiting for appropriate care, as I revealed in a recent investigation for The Lead.
And a far greater proportion of people living in the poorest parts of the country (21%) are waiting more than a year for planned public health care than those living in the richest areas (12%).
“When we dig down further into waiting times data, we see hugely concerning disparities,” said Nuffield Trust senior fellow Liz Fisher in a statement.
“Inequitable access to health care continues to be very real, and how long patients wait for NHS care — whether urgent or planned — is widely different depending on what help they are waiting for, their age, sex, ethnicity and how deprived their local area is.”
Understanding these disparities, she said, was the first step to addressing them.
“Behind the headline figures of near-record waiting lists and many thousands of unsafe waits in emergency care are patients left in pain, and, in some cases, lives tragically lost,” said Health Foundation assistant director of policy Tim Gardner.
“As the government and the NHS develop plans to address waiting times, support and resources for improving services should be targeted in places with the greatest needs where people often face the longest waits.”
