Lives on hold. Living in pain. The hospital waiting list uncovered.
There are more than seven million people on a hospital waiting list in England - one in eight of the nation's entire population.But who are these people and what is the impact on their lives? The BBC has been investigating the backlog to find out.Jane Probyn has spent much of the past three years on an NHS waiting list. She has osteoarthritis and was referred for a hip operation in October 2020.
Deborah Alsina, chief executive of the charity Versus Arthritis, says these long delays are having a "devastating" effect, both physically and mentally, as many of the patients her charity supports end up clinically depressed.
Garry Cogan, 62, from Essex, is one of them. He needs a triple heart bypass after having a heart attack last year. He hopes to undergo surgery early next year, but says the wait has been agonising. The numbers are rising all the time - in the past 18 months the overall number of children waiting has risen by 50%.
There are now more than 400,000, among the 7.2 million people waiting in England, in this position - a rise of a third over the past year. Before the pandemic, fewer than 2,000 patients were waiting more than a year.
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