The UK's NHS surgery backlogs can't be fixed by hiring alone, study warns

MedicalXpress | Mai 12, 2026

Researchers from some of the UK's leading academic institutions have warned that simply hiring more National Health service (NHS) staff will not be enough to reduce surgery backlogs, in research published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. The study has found that historically long backlogs continue to persist due to staff sickness and administrative instability, as opposed to workforce size.