An NHS When You Need It
Local Waiting Lists are Down, Again.
Published: 10 June 2025
People tend to believe in change when they can see and feel it.
Well, look and see.
Local NHS waiting lists are down, again.
At University Hospitals Dorset (UHD), waiting lists have fallen from 67,955 in June of 2024, to 62,246 in May 2025.
A fall of 5,709 in less than the first year of this Labour parliament.
That has been and remains a priority of this government, and one that it has not left untended.
We are building a health service that is there for people when they need it, not one strained by administrative and financial neglect.
I’m proud that there are 5,709 less local cases of awaited care.
Nationally, waiting lists are down by 260,000 and 4.6 million new appointments have been held.
That’s more than double the figure of appointments that we stood on at the last election, and seven months early too.
Moreover, the last time national waiting lists fell in the month of May was 17 years ago, during the last Labour government.
We’ve also recruited more than 1,500 new GPs, doctors that are the front door of our health service.
When people have access to care when they need it, they’re less likely to require specialist treatment down the line. That frees up beds and operating theatres.
The £500 million transformation of Royal Bournemouth Hospital (RBH) continues also, a massive development for our local area.
I spent the day at RBH at a topping-off ceremony to celebrate the progress made on the Coast building, a £91 million project that will bring 110 new hospital beds to Bournemouth.
Those beds relieve the pressure not just in our hospital corridors and waiting rooms, but in our communities too, helping people return to and stay in work.
The Coast building will elevate the capacity and standard of care in our part of the country, as well as playing its part in RBH’s sustainable future.
Our National Health Service is recovering, but the best of the change is yet to come.
We’ll see and feel when it does, I promise you that.
