What happened in 2020 & why are the UK waiting lists so long?
From 2010 to 2019 hospitals in Britain had increasing numbers of admissions. In the year from April 2018 to March 2019 there were 17.1 million admissions.
In the year to March 2020 there were 17.2 million admissions.
What happened in the first year of Covid as measured from April 2020 to March 2021? Did it stay the same or change and if so how much?
To my surprise it went down & by a lot.
That first year of Covid had just 12.8 million admissions. The 2nd year had 16M and the most recent completed budget year ending in March 2023 had 16.4 million.
The deficit for those three years compared to 17M a year is around 7 million. This appears to be about the number of people currently on the hospital waiting lists.
Sources:
Hospital admissions
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/hospital-admitted-patient-care-activity
Hospital waiting lists
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-66188529