THE number of patients left waiting a year or more for routine treatment at the trust running Colchester Hospital reached record highs for the second month in a row.

NHS data shows 1,903 patients listed for elective operations or treatment at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust at the end of December had been waiting for at least 52 weeks.

This figure is up 230 on the number of patients waiting more than a year at the end of November, which was already a record-setting month.

November’s figure of 1,673 was the highest monthly total for the trust, or the combined total of its predecessors, since comparable records began in 2011.

By the end of November the previous year, just four patients had faced such length delays.

The trust runs both Colchester and Ipswich hospitals.

The data shows there was a total of 52,458 patients waiting to start treatment at the trust at the end of December.

It also reveals the number of people waiting more than 52 weeks to start hospital treatment in England is at its highest level since 2008.

It shows 224,205 people in December had been waiting more than a year – the highest number for any calendar month since April 2008.

One year earlier, in December 2019, the figure was just 1,467.

The figures also show a total of 4.52 million people were waiting to start treatment acros England at the end of December – the highest number since records began in August 2007.

Tim Mitchell, vice president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said: “Covid-19 continues to take an enormous toll on people across the country left waiting for an operation.

“The number of people waiting over a year for their treatment is now 150 times higher than in 2019.

“Many are waiting ‘in limbo’, reliant on painkillers, and unable to get on with day-to-day family life or work.

“These figures show the impact on the NHS of lifting the November national lockdown.

“By Christmas, some surgeons were facing the awful job of calling up patients waiting for cancer operations, to tell them they weren’t sure when they would have a bed or staff in place to operate.”