Waiting times for A&E and hospital operations have increased drastically in the last five years, an analysis by a health charity has shown.
Independent charity The Health Foundation found patients waiting for cancer and routine treatment as well as in A&E are facing a longer wait than in 2011-2012.
The organisation studied official statistics from the NHS, the BBC reported.
Last year the health service missed all three targets for the first time ever and in December, as the winter crisis bit, every NHS trust in London missed its A&E waiting target.
A spokesman for the Conservatives told the BBC: “Under Theresa May's leadership, the NHS has more doctors, more nurses and record funding.”
The Health Foundation’s analysis found over 2.5 million people waited four hours or more in A&E in 2016-17, up from 725,000 five years ago.
An extra 200,000 people waited more than 18 weeks for an operation in the past year compared to 2011-2012.
"Maintaining, let alone improving, the quality of care provided is going to be very difficult in the current financial climate,” researcher Tim Gardner told the BBC.
"Funding for the NHS in England will need to increase if these hard won gains to the quality of patient care are to be upheld and built upon in the future.
"Waiting time targets for A&E, cancer and consultant-led treatment are a useful barometer of pressure on the NHS."
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