The waiting list for the trust responsible for Queen's Hospital in Romford and King George Hospital in Goodmayes has hit over 50,000 people.

Figures released by the NHS show 52,589 people were on the waiting list for an appointment at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospital’s Trust (BHRUT) at the end of September 2021.

From this number, a total of 1,077 people had been waiting for over a year and seven people had been waiting for over two years.

According to the statistics, at the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020 there were 4,235,970 people on the NHS waiting list in England.

BHRUT chief executive, Matthew Trainer, said the pandemic has had a “huge impact” on NHS waiting lists, but the focus remains on getting patients the care they need as “quickly as possible”.

He added: “Our recovery plan has already seen the numbers waiting a year reduce from 2,430 to 1,077 and our teams are working extremely hard to come up with innovative ways to get patients the treatment they need.”

A national standard of 92 per cent of people being seen within 18 weeks of a referral has not been met since 2016.

The national waiting list is now 37.7 per cent higher than it was before Covid-19.

Commenting on the increased waiting lists, MP for Dagenham and Rainham Jon Cruddas said: “The doctors, nurses, and other local health care professionals are doing amazing work, trying to see as many people as they can and provide quality care.

“But there’s only so much they can do after a decade of underfunding and without the staff numbers they need.

“My constituents and people waiting for care across the country deserve better.”

Mr Trainer said the trust's recovery plan includes projects such as the gastronaught project, which reduced wait times by five weeks, and the scalpel project, which saw 1,000 patients over a series of "special Saturday clinics”.

He added: “It’s important we see our patients in order of clinical need and we review everyone on our waiting lists for changes in their condition to ensure we can prioritise those most in need.”

Mr Cruddas said he is now calling on the government to “urgently produce a plan to staff and support the NHS in order to bring down waiting lists in areas like ours”.

The Department of Health was contacted but did not respond.