A record number of people were left waiting at least four hours from the decision to admit to admission in A&E, NHS England figures show.

The number waiting reached a peak of 150,922 in October, up from 131,861 the previous month.

More than 30% of people had to wait over four hours to be seen in A&E in October, including 45% of people attending Major A&Es (excluding minor injuries units and specialist centres).

The operational standard is that at least 95% of patients attending A&E should be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours, but this has not been met nationally since 2015.

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 also risen to a new record high.

New NHS England data shows that 43,792 people waited longer than 12 hours in October, up 34% from 32,776 in September and the highest number in records going back to August 2010.

It comes as the number of people in England waiting to start routine hospital treatment has risen to a new record high.

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A total of 7.1 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of September, NHS England said.

This is up from 7.0 million in August and is the highest number since records began in August 2007.

Meanwhile, 401,537 people have been waiting longer than a year to start hospital treatment, up from 387,257 at the end of August and equivalent to around one in 18 people on the entire waiting list.

Very long waits of more than two years have fallen slightly, while the number of people waiting 18 months for treatment has dropped by almost 60% in one year, NHS England said.

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