Heart and cancer patients in the Netherlands will have to wait longer than expected to receive treatment after health authorities began reserving ICU space for future Covid patients.
The NHS backlog sits at a record 5.8 million patients who are waiting to receive routine, and perhaps life-saving treatment.
There is a backlog of roughly 500,000 learner drivers waiting for a test, with the problem not likely to be fixed until 2023.
Rishi Sunak is preparing to announce £6 billion spending package for the NHS to tackle the record patient backlog.
Almost 1.2 million people in England alone are being forced to wait for at least six months to access vital NHS services – nearly five times the number recorded in 2019. And matters will get worse before they get better.
Lockdown has caused a "significant backlog of criminal cases" in Scotland which will not be cleared until at least 2025. The “downstream impacts” of this on community justice services and prisons are expected to be dire.
