Some 6.44 million sufferers had been ready for 7.71 appointments or procedures in October, down from 6.50m ready for a document 7.77m in September. It was the primary time the entire had fallen since November 2022, when it stood at 6.93m.

The Prime Minister blamed the influence of NHS employees strikes for slower than hoped progress on clearing the backlog.

He stated: “We’ve made progress first and foremost on the longest waiters. The thing that has made that difficult is obviously all the industrial action and the strikes that we’ve had.”

Mr Sunak stated he was happy a potential deal had been reached with consultants but it surely was “disappointing” to see junior medical doctors planning 9 extra days of walk-outs in the course of the busy winter months.

He added: “I think what we will see is that actually over the last few weeks that we haven’t had industrial action, people are starting to see progress in bringing down the waiting list.

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“I urge the junior doctors to consider the offer the Government has put forward – everyone else has settled and it’s really on them to do the right thing.”

Meanwhile, NHS England stated ambulance response instances had improved in November, in contrast with the earlier month and the identical time final yr.

Average ambulance handover instances had additionally decreased by round two and a half minutes. However, one in three sufferers - or over 28,000 - waited greater than half-hour to be transferred from an ambulance to A&E final week.

And response instances had been properly above targets. Ambulance crews took a mean of 38 minutes and 30 seconds to achieve class two calls corresponding to coronary heart assaults and strokes in November, towards a goal of 18 minutes.

In A&E departments, 69.7 % of individuals had been seen inside 4 hours, down from 70.2 % in October. Some 42,854 waited greater than 12 hours from a call to confess to really being admitted.

Mr Sunak stated the Government would “keep a close eye” on ambulance delays. He stated £1billion of additional funding was serving to to place extra ambulances on the highway, develop emergency departments and discharge sufferers sooner.

He added: “We know that winter is always a challenging time for the NHS and that’s why this year as Prime Minister I made sure that we started planning with the NHS for winter earlier than we’ve ever done it.

“All of that is making a difference and we’ve seen considerable improvements since this time last year, but obviously we’ll keep a close eye on it and work closely with the NHS to deliver everyone the care that they need.”

Some 71.1 % of sufferers with suspected most cancers had it recognized or dominated out inside 28 days, up from 69.7 % the earlier month.

Although a document quantity had most cancers exams in October, 78,500 waited greater than 4 weeks for a analysis or all-clear after an pressing referral.

Sir Julian Hartley, chief govt at NHS Providers stated the autumn within the remedy ready listing offered “the glimmer of hope we all needed”.

But he added: “There is no room for complacency as we plunge into winter, the hardest time of year for the NHS. There are now more people in hospital with seasonal illnesses...Rising staff absences are also worrying. While ambulance response times have improved slightly, they are still miles off what they should be.

“With looming strikes also threatening to thwart trusts’ progress on backlogs, it’s vital the government and unions break the deadlock to resolve their industrial disputes.”

Nuffield Trust fellow Jessica Morris stated the autumn in numbers ready was “good news” however warned it could be troublesome to take care of this momentum throughout winter.

She added: “This drop is only a small fraction (54,000 people), with over 6.4 million people still waiting.

“Overall, the elective waiting list is 370,000 people higher than it was when the prime minister made his pledge to cut long waits at the beginning of the year.”

NHS nationwide medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, insisted the well being service had made “excellent” progress.

He added: “We still face a challenging winter on a number of fronts, with the number of patients in hospital with flu and norovirus increasing considerably each week, continued issues discharging patients who are medically fit due to a lack of social care capacity, and another period of industrial action ahead of a the Christmas Bank Holidays.”

The variety of sufferers in hospital with flu final week had elevated by 65 % from the earlier seven days, to a mean of 402. But this remained properly beneath the determine of 1,248 at this level final yr.

An common of 506 adults had been in hospital final week with diarrhoea and vomiting or norovirus signs, up 1 / 4 from the earlier week and 31 % larger than at this stage final yr.