Steve Barclay admits the goal to eliminate year-and-a-half waits for hospital treatment by April had been missed 'by a very small margin' but the list had been cut by 90% and the plan to reduce the backlog 'is working'.
"If you look at that compared to, for example, Wales, where it was around 70,000 patients waiting 18 months in Labour-run Wales and we've got a population in England 18 times the size of Wales, a huge amount of progress was made."The number of people in England waiting to start hospital treatment rose to a new high in March with the backlog at a record 7.3 million.
Mr Barclay said this was a"consequence of the pandemic" and the next focus was ending year-long waits for treatment.We're really focused on what more we can do to get those numbers down. But the plan is working," he said. However, he declined to say what number the government would get the backlog down to by the next general election.
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