Hospital waiting lists: The busiest departments at Bedfordshire Hospitals Trust

NHS hospitals in England are under severe pressure, with waiting lists reaching new records, according to the latest figures.

The number of people waiting for routine hospital treatment has grown to 6.4 million, the highest since records began in April 2007.

Trauma and orthopaedic departments have the largest waiting lists, with 731,000 patients queueing for treatments such as knee and hip replacements, 55,000 of whom have been waiting over a year.

The NHS England figures, for the end of March, show the proportion of people who have been waiting for 18 weeks or less has fallen to 62.4%, far below the NHS target of 92% and the worst performance in more than a year.

Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director for NHS England, said hospital teams were making good progress in tackling the backlogs, with record numbers of diagnostic tests and cancer checks taking place in March, as part of what he described as “the most ambitious catch up plan in NHS history”.

But Dr Tim Cooksley, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said: “All parts of the NHS are unquestionably struggling.”

Here, we reveal the hospital departments at Bedfordshire Hospitals Trust – which incorporates Bedford Hospital and Luton & Dunstable University Hospital – with the biggest waiting lists, as of March 2022, the latest available data.