From Public Health Scotland today:

At 28 February 2026, there were an estimated 578,804 individuals on at least one new outpatient, inpatient or day case waiting list. 

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/nhs-waiting-times-stage-of-treatment/stage-of-treatment-waiting-times-inpatients-day-cases-and-new-outpatients-31-march-2026/

All things being equal with 10 times the population you’d expect NHS England to then have an estimated 5.78million individuals on their waiting list but they had 6.13 million, 350 000, 6%, more waiting.

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Jan26-RTT-SPN-Publication-PDF-537K-

From the BMJ in July 2024:

Political failure has left the health system in crisis and caused avoidable harm

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11225594/