A total of 6.8 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of July, new NHS data reveals.
This is up 6.7 million in June and is the highest number since records began in August 2007.
Of those waiting 377,689, patients waited more than 52 weeks and 2,885 patients were waiting more than 104 weeks, down from 3,861 in June. NHS England had a target to eliminate all two year waits by July.
The number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E departments in England from a decision to admit to actually being admitted has fallen, although the figures are still close to record levels.
At least 28,800 patients were delayed more than 12 hours from a decision to admit in A&E in August and 131,000 waited more than four hours.
The data on 12 hour waits from a decision to admit is likely to be around five times lower than the actual number of people who waited more than 12 hours from arriving in A&E. NHS England collects but does not publish the latter.
A total of 71.4 per cent of patients in England were seen within four hours at A&Es last month, up from 71 per cent in July, but still the second-worst performance on record.
The NHS has a target for at least 95 per cent of patients to be admitted , transferred or discharged, within four hours but this has not been met since 2015.
More to follow…
