A new approach, sending top doctors into areas of highest economic inactivity is cutting waiting lists more quickly.

Top doctors are supporting hospital trusts in areas where more people are out of work and waiting for treatment.

From September, 'crack teams' have been sent into NHS hospitals serving communities with high levels of economic inactivity.

The latest data from October 2024 to January 2025 shows waiting lists in these areas have, on average, been reduced at more than double the rate of the rest of the country, falling 130% faster in these areas than the national average.

37,000 cases have been removed from the waiting lists in those 20 areas, averaging almost 2,000 patients per local trust.

For example, at the Northern Care Alliance & Manchester Foundation Trust, a series of ‘super clinics’ has been held with up to 100 patients being seen a day in one-stop appointments where patients can be assessed, diagnosed and put on the treatment pathway in one appointment.

Warrington & Halton has run Super Clinics for Gynaecology delivered at weekends, with one-stop models reducing the need for follow up appointments.

Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting said: "The investment and reform this government has introduced has already cut NHS waiting lists by 193,000, but there is much more to do.

"By sending top doctors to provide targeted support to hospitals in the areas of highest economic inactivity, we are getting sick Brits back to health and back to work.

"I am determined to transform health and social care so it works better for patients – but also because I know that transformation can help drag our economy out of the sluggish productivity and poor growth of recent years.

"We have to get more out of the NHS for what we put in. By taking the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS, reforming the way surgeries are running, we are cutting waiting lists twice as fast at no extra cost to the taxpayer.  

"As we boost NHS productivity and deliver fundamental reform through our Plan for Change, you will see improvements across the service in the coming weeks and months."