THE NUMBER of patients waiting longer than two years for treatment at Warrington and Halton Hospitals Trust has fallen, figures show.

Data from May - the latest numbers released - highlights that the number of people who have been waiting more than two years to be treated by the Trust has fallen this month.

In February this year, there were 70 patients waiting more than two years for treatment - as of May, this number had fallen to just 12.

This represents a fall of 82.8 per cent in the number of those waiting this length of time for treatment.

Across the country, the number of patients waiting two years for treatment fell from nearly 24,000 to just 3,548 between January and July this year.

However, there are still more than 1,000 patients in Warrington who have yet to be treated by Warrington and Halton Hospitals Trust.

Danielle Jefferies, policy analyst at The King's Fund, said: "Thanks to the huge efforts of NHS staff, significant progress has been made in reducing the number of people facing waits of two years or more for planned hospital treatment.

"But the overall waiting list has continued to grow, and the number of people waiting more than a year is also rising."

Nationally, there are 332,000 patients waiting more than a year for treatment.

Minister of State for Health, Maria Caulfield, said: "NHS staff have been working incredibly hard to bust the Covid backlogs and have treated more than 15 million patients in the last year.

"Our groundbreaking Community Diagnostic Centres have delivered over 1.1 million additional checks since July 2021, and the number of people waiting more than two years for treatment has dropped by more than 80 per cent since February."