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Campaigners demand £20bn investment into NHS to reduce waiting list backload
People take part in a protest outside Parliament in central London, calling on the government to tackle NHS waiting list

THE NHS needs £20 billion in the next six months to cut its record backlog of patients waiting for treatment, campaigners warned today.

The call followed the government’s allocation of £5.4bn this week and new NHS England figures revealing that the number of people in the country waiting for hospital treatment has hit a new record high.

A total of 5.6 million were waiting to start treatment at the end of July, the highest number since records began in August 2007.

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