RTT - How bad is it really?

No doubt you've seen the news today (BBC News) that waiting times are set to increase with Mr Stevens saying he could no longer guarantee treatment in the 18-week target time. This got me thinking, how bad is it now, how bad could it get, and how bad was it in the 'old days'. Thankfully the NHS publishes stats on referral to treatment (RTT) performance so I was able to easily see what was going on. The chart below simple shows the percentage of patients waiting >18 weeks as recorded during that month

Firstly, the percentage has been increasing for 3 and a half years so why is this now in the press (Political reason perhaps)?

Secondly, look how bad it was in 2007, we have a long way to go until it is that bad again.

Digging a little further, let's look at the % of patients waiting >52 weeks for treatment:-

The story doesn't look so bad here with only a handful of patients waiting >52 weeks.

If I want to make a story of the numbers I can zoom into the last couple of years:-

The percentage of patients waiting > 52 weeks is increasing (Look at the axis though).

As an aside, which chart do you prefer? The line chart with the column added to give a bit of colour, or the classic line only chart? Or would you have preferred something different like a area chart? Let me know.

Source:- https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/rtt-waiting-times/