The number of people in England waiting to start routine hospital treatment has risen to an all-time high.
A total of 6.7 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of June, NHS England said.
That’s up from 6.6 million in May and the highest number since records began in August 2007.
The average response time in July for ambulances in England dealing with the most urgent incidents, defined as calls from people with life-threatening illnesses or injuries, was 9 minutes 35 seconds, figures from NHS England.
This is up from 9 minutes and 6 seconds in June and is the longest overall average response time for this incident category since current records began in 2017.
The target standard response time for urgent incidents is seven minutes.
Ambulances in England took an average of 59 minutes and 7 seconds last month to respond to emergency calls such as burns, epilepsy and strokes.
That’s up from 51min 38sec in June and well above the target of 18 minutes.
That’s just short of the longest response time on record for this category of incidents, which is 1hr 1min 5sec, set in March this year.
Response times for urgent calls, such as late stages of labor, non-serious burns and diabetes, averaged 3 hours 17 minutes and 6 seconds.
That’s better than the 2h 53m 54s in June, and is also just short of the record for this category of 3h 28m 12s, which was set in March.