MORE than 55,000 people were waiting to start treatment at the trust which runs Colchester Hospital at the end of February, figures reveal.

Health organisations have warned of the pandemic’s “catastrophic” impact on NHS services as new data shows the number of people in England waiting to begin hospital treatment has risen to a new record high.

NHS England’s latest figures revealed 55,312 patients at the East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation Trust were waiting to start treatment at the end of February.

The proportion of patients at the trust waiting within 18 weeks for treatment stood at 62.7 per cent - the NHS operation standard is 92 per cent.

The data showed 19 out of 20 patients started treatment within 50 weeks.

Nick Hulme, chief executive of the East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation Trust, said the introduction of more weekend shifts could help manage the backlog.

He said: “We are doing everything we can to care for people as safely and quickly as possible. This includes prioritising those with the most urgent clinical needs first and by using virtual appointments more widely.

“We are also looking to create extra capacity for treatments with longer days, more weekend working and by working with the private sector and other partners where we can.”

Separate NHS England figures revealed a sharp rise in patients from the trust visiting A&E.

Figures show 17,002 patients went to A&E at the trust in March.

This was a rise of 36 per cent on the 12,530 visits recorded during February - and 17 per cent more than the 14,554 patients seen in March the previous year.

An NHS spokesman said: “The majority of attendances last month were via major A&E departments – those with full resuscitation equipment and 24-hour consultant-led care – while 27 per cent were via minor injury units.”

Nationally, a total of 4.7 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of February – the highest figure since records began in August 2007.

The number of people waiting more than 52 weeks to start their hospital treatment stood at 387,885 in February.

In February 2020, the number of those having to wait more than 52 weeks to start treatment stood at just 1,613.