Don’t get sick: NHS backlog projected to last until 2024

While millions stood on their doorsteps every Thursday evening to cheer on the NHS through this moment of turmoil, the real crisis was being sown.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid has declared that the NHS backlog will not start to reverse for another two years, with Javid commenting that close to 10 million people did not receive the NHS treatment they needed during the pandemic. It must also be noted that this is a mere estimate – the number could be closer to seven million or, on the flip side, in excess of 12 million.

The Government’s ‘stay home’ directive and other heavy-handed nudge tactics have made the true scale of the problem difficult to quantify, as the NHS can’t diagnose a sick patient or document their ailment if they have not ventured out in search of treatment. No matter what the true number is, it’s not going to be anything short of cataclysmic – that it is the only verifiable conclusion the current statistics can provide.

While millions stood on their doorsteps every Thursday evening to cheer on the NHS through this moment of turmoil, the real crisis was being sown. The can was continuously kicked down the road, but now we are in the ‘learning to live with Covid’ phase, the problem has grown to such a visually imposing size that it can be ignored no longer.

Of course, we must not pretend that the NHS was not crisis-ridden before the world had heard of the city of Wuhan. Every Autumn, the press cycle was swarmed with comments about the NHS being pushed to breaking point and that it would topple over, if not this year, then next year. Earlier this year, to stop a dire situation getting any worse, Javid even dropped the incoming NHS vaccine mandate.

But the situation that faces us is clear. The NHS is unequipped to fit the demands of the nation, and not solely because of a lack of funding (there are a myriad of other factors to consider, like immigration or increasing rates of obesity). Nevertheless, even when the backlog is projected to wane, I doubt the NHS will have reached an acceptable level of efficiency. Don’t get sick lads.