Delivery of elective care in the future

In January 2022, there were 6,104,056 patients waiting for consultant-led non-urgent treatment.¹ The pandemic has led to increased waiting times in all specialties as elective care was postponed to manage the influx of acute medical patients presenting with COVID-19. From March 2020 to March 2021, the number of patients waiting for elective treatment increased by 17%, and those waiting for more than 52 weeks increased from 3,097 to 436,127. Although most patients are waiting for surgical treatment, there are over 1.8 million adults waiting for elective treatment in a medical specialty.