NHS waiting lists at 20-year high - what are your rights? (PA) NHS waiting lists are going to take many years to tackle, the NHS Confederation chief executive has said. Healthcare waiting lists in the UK are now longer than they have been for about 20 years. Danny Mortimer said that once the impacts of the spike of Covid-19 in January and February are understood, waiting lists are “still going to be significantly higher than we have seen for a very, very long time”. 224,000 waiting longer than 52 weeks A total of 4.52 million people are currently on the NHS waiting list, with 224,000 of those waiting longer than 52 weeks.