TENS of thousands of Southampton patients were waiting for routine treatment at the city's biggest hospital this summer, new figures have revealed.

Data from NHS Digital has highlighted the record number of people who were waiting for elective operations or treatment at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS) in June.

A total of 40,818 patients at UHS were left waiting - up from 39,114 at the end of May.

This was also 29 per cent more than a year previously, and the highest figure for the month of June since comparable records began in 2011.

At the Trust, 11,462 patients listed for routine treatment at the end of June had been waiting longer than 18 weeks for care - 28 per cent of all those on the list.

This was down from 11,923 waiting at least 18 weeks at the end of May.

There were also 2,435 patients waiting at least a year for treatment in the most recent month's data.

Joe Teape, chief operating officer at University Hospital Southampton, said: “Like all other hospital Trusts in England, University Hospital Southampton has faced an exceptionally challenging 18 months since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In March 2020 the difficult decision was made to postpone non-urgent elective surgery as our focus switched to freeing up inpatient and critical care capacity, to ensure we could look after the sickest and most vulnerable members of our community.

“We are now in a period of recovery and are working closely with health and social care partners across the Hampshire and Isle of Wight system to support the need to increase capacity and address existing waiting list sizes.

“At UHS, a raft of measures to tackle the problem have been introduced including the use of private sector capacity, continuing use of virtual appointments, the opening of two new theatres and an additional two to be operational next month. We have also introduced ‘Super Saturdays’ – with staff choosing to give up their weekends on top of their working weeks, to utilise our theatre space and increase our surgical capability. This can sometimes mean up to 20 patients waiting for non-urgent surgery can have their operation on a weekend.

“The impact of COVID was considerable both on services and our workforce. It will take time to fully recover to pre-pandemic waiting times for patients, however we are assessing patients’ clinical needs to ensure those requiring the most urgent care receive it as quickly and safely as possible. Our staff continue to work tirelessly to do all they can to support those in need of our care.”

The number of people on waiting lists across England has risen to 5.45 million – the highest total for any month since records began in August 2007.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid warned that waiting lists across England will keep rising, despite the number of patients waiting for treatment reaching a new national record.

Mr Javid said he thinks waiting lists will rise even further due to the “huge increase in demand”.

He said: “The NHS has rightly focused on Covid-19 in this horrible pandemic and that has meant, sadly, that waiting lists have risen.”

Around seven million people who might have needed care during the pandemic are estimated to have stayed away and as some of them come forward to the NHS, there will be further increases in waiting lists, he said.

He added that an extra £29 billion has gone into the NHS and social care budget this year, and the Government will look at what more it needs to do.