More than 16,000 patients have been waiting longer than 18 weeks to start treatment at an east London NHS hospital trust.
A total of 55,548 people are on the waiting list for treatment at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust (BHRUT), according to the latest NHS data from March.
The data reveals that out of those on the waiting list, 30 per cent - or 16,664 patients - have been waiting for more than 18 weeks to start their treatment.
Meanwhile, 70pc have been waiting up to 18 weeks - and in half of cases the patient has been waiting less than 10 weeks.
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BHRUT is performing better than other NHS trusts in London: Guy's and St Thomas' has more than 121,000 patients on its waiting list, while Barts Health Trust has more than 124,000 patients waiting.
Of these, only 60.7 pc and 55.3 pc respectively have been waiting within 18 weeks.
There has also been an improvement in the waiting list times for BHRUT over the past six months.
A total of 22,303 patients were recorded as waiting more than 18 weeks to start treatment in September 2024, with this dropping down to 16,938 by February 2025.
Fiona Wheeler, chief operating officer of BHRUT, called this improvement "great news for our patients".
Ms Wheeler added: "We have made significant inroads in areas like gynaecology, where the number of women waiting for treatment has reduced by more than 1,500 in the past year.
"However, too many people are still waiting longer than we’d like and we’re working hard to get them the care they need as quickly as possible."
The latest NHS data also shows that, during March, 2,361 patients were able to start treatment at either King George or Queen's Hospital, while 11,272 people started outpatient treatment.
Outpatient appointments generally had quicker waiting times than hospital appointments, according to the data, with the patient starting treatment within eight weeks in half of these cases.
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