THE number of people waiting for treatment at Princess Alexandra Hospital has also increased since April 2017, though the total is down from the 19,907 in 2016.

There were 16,600 people waiting for treatment at the trust at the end of April.

The number of people on the waiting list at the trust has jumped by 15.2 per cent since last April, when 14,400 people were waiting for treatment.

The number of people waiting for treatment at Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals is at its highest level on record.

There were 25,484 people waiting for treatment at the trust at the end of April, the highest number since records began in August 2007.

The number of people on the waiting list at the trust has jumped by 4.8 per cent compared to last April, when 24,321 people were waiting.

At the end of April, 80.8 per cent of patients waiting for treatment had been on the list for less than 18 weeks, below the target is 92 per cent.

This meant 4,903 patients were waiting longer than the target time, with 36 patients having spent more than a year on the waiting list.

The average median waiting time at the end of April was 9.3 weeks.

However Southend Hospital saw the highest number of people – 26,117 – waiting for treatment.

At the end of April, 89.1 per cent of patients waiting for treatment had been on the list for less than 18 weeks, below the target of 92 per cent. This meant 1,807 patients were waiting longer than the target time.

Mid Essex Hospital has not submitted waiting list figures since December 2017, when the number of people waiting for treatment at Mid Essex was 46,100.

Sharon Salthouse, director of operations for planned and scheduled care, said: “Like most hospitals, we experienced an extremely busy winter period and therefore needed to prioritise emergency patients.

“This inevitably impacted on the number of routine operations we were able to perform.
“This means that some patients have had to wait longer for their surgery and we would like to apologise for this delay.

“Our elective surgical ward has been reinstated and we continue to work with our healthcare partners to look at what steps we can take to reduce our waiting list further.”