TENS of thousands of patients were waiting for routine treatment at the North Cumbria Integrated Care Trust (NCIC) in October, new figures show.

NHS England figures show that 37,276 patients were waiting for non-urgent elective operations or treatment at the NCIC at the end of October.

This figure is up from 36,464 in September 2022 and from 32,566 a year ago in October 2021.

Of those, 754 (2 per cent) had been waiting for longer than a year.

The median waiting time from referral at an NHS trust to treatment at the NCIC was 14 weeks at the end of October, the same as in September.

Seperate data shows that at the NCIC, 7,813 patients were waiting for one 12 standards tests such as an MRI scan, non-obstetic ultrasound or gastroscopy.

Other figures also show that for 102 patients urgently referred by the NHS, who were treated at the NCIC in October, 55 were receiving cancer treatment within two months of their referral.

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An NCIC spokesperson said: "Our clinical staff are working very hard to reduce the backlog of patients waiting for elective surgery in North Cumbria.

"We understand how difficult it is for patients who are having to wait longer than any of us would like  for the elective care they need.

"There are now no patients waiting over 104 weeks for treatment and we are now focusing on making sure we have no patients waiting over 78 weeks as well as continuing to reduce the number of people waiting over 52 weeks by March 2023.

"Since March 2021 we have reduced the number of patients waiting over 52 weeks by more than 65 per cent reduction.

"Diagnostic performance has improved significantly over the past year with the waiting list having reduced by over 6,500 from its peak in October 2021.

"Demand for diagnostics continues to grow therefore the only way to fully address waiting times is to expand our capacity.

"We are currently running mobile scanners at our main hospital sites and we were delighted to be granted the £15m funding to build a Community Diagnostic Centre in Workington with work starting in March 2023.

Increasing our diagnostics is also having a positive impact on our Cancer services with our long waits reducing by 25% since June.

"We have a Cancer Improvement Plan in place and as part of that we are receiving help and support from national and regional colleagues including working with the Northern Cancer Alliance who have helped provide and coordinate mutual aid support where it has been available.

"One of the ways we will continue to make positive progress against our recovery plans is to alleviate the pressure being felt across our services.

"This includes doing all we can to ease congestion in our A&E departments; funding additional beds over the winter period; making sure our discharge procedures are effective seven days a week and recruiting additional home care practitioners to help support patients in their own homes after they have been discharged from hospital."

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