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Sajid Javid has said that as many as 10 million people are estimated to have stayed away from the NHS during the height of the coronavirus crisis.

The health secretary made the announcement while setting out his ‘new ambitious elective recovery plan, the NHS’s delivery plan for tackling the Covid-19 backlog of elective’ in the Commons.

Mr Javid told MPs that despite the NHS’s ‘exceptional efforts’ there ‘is now a considerable Covid backlog of elective care’.

He added: ‘1,600 people have waited longer than a year for care before the pandemic. The latest data shows that this figure is now over 300,000.

‘On top of this, the number of people waiting for elective care in England now stands at six million – that is up from 4.4 million before the pandemic.

‘Sadly, this number will continue rising before it falls. A lot of people understandably stayed away from the NHS during the heights of the pandemic, and the most up-to-date estimate from the NHS is that that number is around 10 million people.

‘I want these people to know that the NHS is open. I want them to come forward for the care they need.’

Mr Javid said ‘we don’t know how many will now come forward’ for elective care.

He added that ‘we don’t know whether it will be 30% or 80%’ so in developing the plan ‘the NHS has had to make a number of assumptions’.

Mr Javid said: ‘Even if half of these people come forward, this is going to place huge demand on the NHS and we are pulling out all the stops so that the NHS is there for them when they do.’

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