THE Tories have “lost control” of NHS waiting lists, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) warned today after the backlog of patients needing treatment hit a new record high.

Data from NHS England data showed that its overall waiting list was at 7.77 million at the end of September, up from 7.75 million at the end of August.

The figure is made up of 6.5 million individual patients, meaning that over a million patients are now waiting for more than one treatment.