and 11:30pm this evening in the papers. 0ur guestsjoining me tonight are geraldine scott, the political correspondent for the press association, and broadcaster and journalist james lewer. a former conservative health secretary has said the government must bite the bullet and bring in tax rises to fund the nhs and social care. jeremy hunt said the pressures on the sector are only going to increase following the pandemic. the government is due to announce some measures next week to address the challenges faced by the nhs in england as the number of people waiting for procedures is at a record high. 0ur health editor hugh pym reports. i m not half the man i was. compared to what i could do, i m nowhere near the guy. wayne from derbyshire has had a painful and sometimes traumatic wait of more than two years for treatment for gallstones. after six months of assessment, he was put on the list for an operation early last year, but while waiting for surgery,
he became seriously ill and spent months in hospital. he had to learn to walk again and build up his strength. welcome home! and he was discharged from hospital in february. i should ve been dealt with far sooner and this wouldn t have happened. being bitter s not going to solve this. solving it would be putting an end so going forward, these queues, these waiting lists are reduced. wayne still doesn t know when his operation will take place. he feels the delay and his condition getting worse just meant more nhs resources were needed for his care. so, what are the solutions? major north london hospitals, including this one, are working together to send patients to specialist centres. here, it s orthopaedic surgery. they re doing more operations than before the pandemic and are bringing in some who ve had long waits. we know that waiting with advanced arthritis is causing significant-