New figures show that NHS 999 services had their busiest ever month in October as staff answered a record 1,012,143 calls.

The latest NHS data reveals that ambulance staff responded to more than 82,000 life threatening call-outs, an increase of more than 20,000 on the previous high for October in 2019 (61,561), as well as dealing with the surge in 999 calls.

Major A&Es treated over 1.4 million people during October – the highest ever for the month and third highest of all time.

NHS England has also revealed that the health service carried out 1.9 million diagnostic tests and 1.3 million patients started consultant-led treatment during September, that was compared with 1.7 million tests and 1.1 million treatments in the same month last year.

However, the number of people in England waiting to start routine hospital treatment has risen to a new record high. A total of 5.8 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of September 2021 - the highest number since records began in August 2007.