NHS waiting lists are going to take "many years" to tackle, the NHS Confederation chief executive has said.

Healthcare waiting lists in the UK are now longer than they have been for about 20 years.

Danny Mortimer said that once the impacts of the spike of Covid-19 in January and February are understood, waiting lists are “still going to be significantly higher than we have seen for a very, very long time”.

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224,000 waiting longer than 52 weeks

A total of 4.52 million people are currently on the NHS waiting list, with 224,000 of those waiting longer than 52 weeks.

Speaking to Times Radio, Mr Mortimer said that honesty from both politicians and the NHS with the public about the scale of the task will be “really, really important”.

Efforts will be needed to “explain as clearly as we can what is going to happen and what sort of choices are being made, and sadly how long it is going to take for us to get back to where we desperately want to be,” he added.

President of the Royal College of Surgeon, Professor Neil Mortensen, said “a big plan” will be needed to tackle the waiting list issue.

Also speaking to Times Radio, Prof Mortensen said: “I think surgeons are very prepared to be flexible. I think there needs to be more operating time. There needs to be more opening hours for surgery and surgery hubs.”

With a stacked waiting list, surgeons face a lack of access to theatres and the staff who work there, including anaesthetists, are very tired.

“We have already done well with remote outpatient appointments, with patients not having to come to hospital for assessment and follow-up, but staff are tired and need a pause, particularly for surgery we need the help of our friendly anaesthetists,” Prof Mortensen continued.

“We can’t really do anything without having a really good theatre team.”