Five stark graphs that lay bare the scale of the NHS crisis

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The scale of the crisis the health service is facing has been laid bare, with NHS England data released on Thursday showing 7.61 million treatments waiting to be carried out as of November. Cancer treatment Cancer targets were still being missed, the data showed, with 71.9 per cent of patients urgently referred for suspected cancer in November 2023 being diagnosed or having cancer ruled out within 28 days. View more In addition, the proportion of patients in England waiting longer than 62 days in November from an urgent suspected cancer referral or consultant upgrade to their first definitive treatment for cancer was 65.2 per cent. Kate Seymour, head of advocacy at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “Even though today’s data shows a slight improvement in waiting times, there are still thousands of people in England facing agonising delays for vital cancer diagnosis and treatment and what’s worse, this isn’t a new problem, we’ve been seeing it for years.