MORE than 100,000 extra patients have been treated on time since July as the Government delivers on its Plan for Change to slash waiting lists.

Around 106,000 more patients – greater than the capacity of Wembley stadium – received surgery or other admitted treatment within 18 weeks of referral between July 2024 and February 2025 compared to the year before – a 7.4 per cent increase.

The figures published this week show that the Government is delivering on its Plan for Change commitment to cut waiting times for 92 per cent of patients to 18 weeks before the end of this Parliament.

In our first nine months, this government has delivered three million more appointments, cut waiting lists six months in a row by a total of 219,000 and recruited 1,500 new GPs.

All of that would have been impossible without the extra investment this Labour government has made.

Across the country, key health centres are also opening for more hours per day, meaning that patients are getting easier access to the care they need, and with quicker waiting times directly linked to improved health outcomes.

The government made a promise to the British public to fix the broken foundation of our NHS, with the Plan for Change putting people first and getting them the treatments they require.

Key measures in the Elective Reform Plan such as bringing the NHS app into the digital age, keeping patients off of waiting lists by treating them in the community and opening and expanding even more Community Diagnostics Centres and surgical hubs, patients are seeing their time on waiting lists being brought down.

Wes Streeting MP, Health and Social Care Secretary, said:

“For years, we have heard shocking stories of patients who have been left to suffer for months, sometimes years because the broken NHS could not deliver the care they so desperately need.

“We promised to get the NHS back on its feet and deliver the Government’s Plan for Change, and we are delivering on that.

“The Conservatives, Lib Dems, and Reform opposed the employers’ national insurance rise, and in doing so opposed the extra £26 billion investment in our NHS. They should come clean about what that would mean: waiting lists soaring, fewer GPs, and patients waiting even longer.

“There’s a long way to go, and there will be bumps along the way. But Labour is putting the NHS back on the road to recovery.”

The government has taken a proactive approach to getting to grips with turning around the health service. Key steps, such as getting resident doctors back on the front line, injecting record funding into the health service and getting more teams working out of hours is already having vital benefits for patients.

This Labour government’s Plan for Change will ensure it is there for patients up and down the country once again.