Minister continues to confuse NHS waiting lists

22 July 2024

Labour MP and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden seems to have confused the number of people on NHS waiting lists with the number of cases.

Giving a statement in the House of Commons on the Covid-19 Inquiry, Mr McFadden said: “As I stand here today with 8 million people on NHS waiting lists.”

This is a mistake we’ve seen a lot of and involves mixing up the number of cases on the main waiting list in England (7.6 million according to the latest data) with the number of individual people (around 6.4 million).

The number of cases will always be greater than the number of individual people because some people will be waiting for treatment for more than one thing.

We’ve fact checked similar claims a number of times over the last year—including when Mr McFadden used the 8 million figure in May.

In April 2024, the Office for National Statistics published waiting list survey data giving a greater insight into how many people are waiting across other types of waiting lists not covered by the main waiting list.

This indicated that in January and February 2024, around 21% of adults in England—or 9.7 million adults—were “currently waiting for a hospital appointment, test, or to start receiving medical treatment through the NHS”.

This claim was detected using Full Fact’s AI tools. You can find more about these on our website.

Full Fact fights bad information

Bad information ruins lives. It promotes hate, damages people’s health, and hurts democracy. You deserve better.

Subscribe to weekly email newsletters from Full Fact for updates on politics, immigration, health and more. Our fact checks are free to read but not to produce, so you will also get occasional emails about fundraising and other ways you can help. You can unsubscribe at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy.