Figures released by the NHS last week, show in May there were 40,679 people awaiting treatment at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (MTW), which runs the hospital in both Pembury and Maidstone.
The figures show the number of people waiting for treatments such as hip and knee operations has grown by just 43 patients, up from 40,636 in April.
This is the smallest rise since the pandemic began in March 2020, when the waiting lists began to increase from 29,419 to its current record levels.
The departments in MTW with the largest waiting lists include ophthalmology where there are 7,257 people waiting, gynaecology with 4,872 waiting and general surgery – which includes hip and knee operations – which has 4,731 patients waiting.
There are no recorded incidents of people waiting more than a year for treatment at MTW, and 71.2 per cent of people are seen within 18 weeks.
While the 18-week figure is lower than the NHS target of 92 per cent, it is up from April’s figures when 69.8 per cent of patients were seen within the government’s standard.
The figures come amid a backdrop of record people on waiting lists in Trusts across the country.
More than 6.6 million people – up 100,000 in a month are waiting for treatment across England – which is a new record
Around 8,000 people in England were waiting more than two years to start routine hospital treatment at the end of May, NHS England said.
This is down from 12,735 at the end of April but is more than three times the 2,608 people who were waiting longer than two years in April 2021.
Last month, following a series of rises to the waiting lists at Tunbridge Wells and Maidstone Hospital, a spokesperson for MTW said the staff there had been working hard to address the backlog.
He added: “We have continued to maintain our position of no patients waiting for surgery over 52 weeks and caring for our most clinically urgent patients.
“After continuing cancer treatment throughout the pandemic and seeing unprecedented
admissions within our emergency departments, the Trust are now also increasing the number of outpatient appointments over the next year to ensure we provide timely care. We continue to urge people to come forward for the care they need, using NHS 111 online where appropriate.”
