Could NHS waiting lists really reach 13 million?

Could NHS waiting lists really reach 13 million? Since the start of the pandemic, the number of people waiting for NHS treatment in England has grown by a fifth. 5.3 million people were waiting for treatment in May 2021, up from 4.4 million in February 2020. There has been a particularly sharp increase in the number of people waiting for longer than a year, causing widespread concern over the scale of the NHS ‘backlog’. Institute for Fiscal Studies

See also: 

• NHS waiting lists could rise to 14 million in England next year - analysis BBC News
• NHS England waiting list could soar to FOURTEEN MILLION by autumn 2022 The Daily Mail
• Private hospital groups set to profit from massive NHS backlog in wave of new deals iNews
• England's NHS waiting list could top 14 million by next autumn, report warns Sky News