The NHS waiting list has reduced, with NHS England attributing the decrease to the hard work and widespread innovation of NHS staff.

The number of patients waiting for elective care in October was down to 6.44 million, with waits for procedures and appointments down to 7.71 million (from 7.77 million in September).

NHS national medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis has praised staff for their incredible efforts.

Thanks to extensive winter plans and the NHS blueprint to recover urgent and emergency care, ambulance response times in November were faster across all categories, with the most serious call-outs (Category 1) almost 10 seconds faster (8:32) compared with 8:40 in October, and Category 2 almost three minutes faster at 38:30 (from 41:41 in October).

Furthermore, the most serious call outs were almost a minute faster than same month last year (9:26). This is despite higher numbers of people needing emergency help with the number of the most serious incidents up 15 per cent compared to the same month last year.

The data also shows that handover times have improved since the previous month, averaging 35:04 minutes (down from 37:33 in October).

However, winter viruses are continuing to rise in hospitals, putting pressure on services. There are more people in hospital with flu, norovirus and Covid, compared to the previous week.

There were 402 patients in hospital with flu last week, up by almost two thirds (65.4%) from the week before (243) and norovirus is also continuing to rise with 506 adults in hospital last week – up by almost 25% on the previous week (406).

NHS national medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, said: “We know NHS staff have continued to pull out all the stops to deliver for patients and work towards the aims in our elective care and UEC recovery plans, while contending with ongoing pressure, and it is great to see clearly that hard work reflected in today’s figures.

“With the overall waiting list for elective care coming down, ambulance response times faster than both last month and the same time last year, as well as hundreds of new staff joining the emergency care workforce ahead of winter, this progress is excellent.

“While the sheer amount of care being delivered for patients by our staff is incredible, we know 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.

“Our staff will once more be prioritising urgent and emergency care to protect patient safety and ensure those in life-saving emergencies can receive the best possible care, and the public can continue to play their part by using NHS services in the usual way – calling 999 in an emergency and using NHS 111 for other health conditions, and by getting their flu and Covid jabs if eligible.”