Research by the House of Commons Library, commissioned by the Liberal Democrats, reveals that 100 of the 106 (94.3%) sub-ICBs in England saw the number of month-long waits increase last year, with the starkest rise occurring in Sunderland where there was a 51% jump from 60,000 to 91,000. This was followed by North East Lincolnshire with a 46% jump and then North Cumbria, which saw a 38% spike.

Kent and Medway recorded the most month-long waits of anywhere in the country with 781,000, up more than a fifth on 2023's figure of 642,000. This was followed by Derby and Derbyshire with 722,000, up 14% on the previous total of 633,000.

The proportion of waits longer than a month also rose to one in 10 in some areas, including Gloucestershire, Chorley and South Ribble, Derby and Derbyshire and Dorset.

The research also revealed the number of waits that were two-weeks or longer with the total across England hitting more than 67 million. In Gloucestershire, Norfolk and Waveney, Dorset, Northumberland, Derby and Derbyshire and Nottingham and Nottinghamshire the proportion of waits longer than two weeks was over 25%.

Kent and Medway had 2.4 million waits of two weeks or longer, followed by Hampshire, Southampton and the Isle of Wight on 2.2 million and Norfolk and Waveney of 2.1 million. The largest rise in two-week waits was in North Yorkshire with a 36% jump, then North East Lincolnshire (31%) and Blackburn with Darwen (28%). The data shows 101 of the 106 sub-ICBs saw a rise in the number of two-week waits, with 22% having an increase of at least 15%.

Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson, Helen Morgan, said: ‘These figures reveal a stark postcode lottery that is leaving people in vast swathes of the country without the care they deserve. Many already in pain are being forced into anxiety-inducing waits that only add to their suffering and leave them at risk of not getting the treatment they need in time.

‘Time and again the Conservatives broke their promises to patients and ran our local health services into the ground, but it is now the Labour government not showing nearly enough ambition to break this cycle of misery.

‘If we are going to give communities the local health care that they need, we have to go further and faster. That means giving patients a legal right to see their GP within a week by ensuring there are 8,000 more GPs. Only then will we be able to rebuild our NHS and get patients the care they deserve.'