Almost 41,000 patients were waiting for routine treatment at the North Cumbria Integrated Care Trust (NCIC) in May, new figures show.

The data comes as health secretary Wes Streeting said the NHS has been "wrecked".

NHS England figures show 40,995 patients were waiting for non-urgent elective operations or treatment at NCIC at the end of May – up from 40,156 in April, and 35,242 in May 2023.

Of those, 1,141 (3 per cent) had been waiting for longer than a year.

The median waiting time from referral at an NHS Trust to treatment at NCIC was 15 weeks at the end of May – up from 14 weeks in April.

Nationally, 7.6 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of May. This was up slightly from 7.57 million at the end of March and the first time the NHS waiting list has risen in seven months.

"It’s clear to anyone who works in or uses the NHS that it is broken," Mr Streeting said, as he launched a new probe into conditions in the health service.

"Unlike the last government, we are not looking for excuses. I am certainly not going to blame NHS staff, who bust a gut for their patients.

Separate figures show 1.7 million patients in England were waiting for a key diagnostic test in May – a rise on 1.6 million in April.

At NCIC, 10,286 patients were waiting for one of 12 standard tests, such as an MRI scan, non-obstetric ultrasound or gastroscopy at this time.

Of them, 1,662 (16 per cent) had been waiting for at least six weeks.

The NHS states 85 per cent of cancer patients with an urgent referral should start treatment within 62 days.

But NHS England data shows just 59 per cent of cancer patients urgently referred to NCIC in May began treatment within two months of their referral.

That was down from 63 per cent in April, but up from 54 per cent in May 2023.

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A spokesperson for NCIC said: “7,103 patients began their treatment with us in May, however our waiting list still increased by 839 patients.

“We currently have work underway to improve patient flow across our services and better utilise the new facilities at West Cumberland Hospital which would mean we can undertake more elective work.

“In May, our diagnostic waiting list has decreased for the first time since September last year which is positive, and more patients are waiting within 6 weeks than they were in April.

“We are very pleased that we have improved and met two of our cancer performance targets, we are still doing all that we can to make sure patients are being seen and beginning treatment as soon as possible.

“We thank our community for their ongoing support in using services appropriately.”