NUMBERS of people waiting for hospital appointments have soared, according to latest figures.

At Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, 9,683 people are on the waiting list – up 15.8 per cent in a year.

The number of people who have faced a wait of over a year is 486, whilst 14 people have been waiting more than two years.

Across the country, more than 5.8 million are waiting for a hospital appointment and the standard of 92 per cent of people being seen within 18 weeks of a referral has not been met since 2016.

And the NHS is short of 100,000 staff.

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Bradford Council’s executive member for healthy people and places, said Airedale's waiting lists were "too long and getting longer".

She added: "That’s not just a statistic – it’s local people living with pain and risk, longer than they should have to.

"This isn’t only about Covid – despite the efforts of staff, key targets haven’t been met across the country for years.

"From waiting lists to A&E to getting an appointment with your local GP, for local people our health service is going backwards, as seen nationally."

Jonathan Ashworth, Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, said: "We’ve heard serious warnings from hospital chiefs about the unsustainable pressure the NHS is under.

"The coming winter weeks are set to be the most challenging in history for the NHS. It’s now urgent that Government ministers fix the stalling vaccination programme, resolve the immediate crisis in social care and bring forward a long-term plan to recruit the healthcare staff our NHS desperately needs."

The Department of Health and Social Care says billions of pounds are being invested into the NHS.

A spokesperson said: "Local surgical hubs, new technology to speed-up diagnosis and innovative ways of working will help the NHS to tackle growing waiting lists and treat around 30 per cent more patients who need elective care by 2023-24."

David Crampsey, executive medical director at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, said that addressing the increased waiting times locally was a "key focus".

He added: "We continue to make progress on the elective surgery backlog and we want to reassure people that the NHS remains open and addressing the increased waiting times is a key focus for our clinical and operational teams.

"We apologise to anyone whose treatment has been rescheduled and thank them for their understanding."