The rise represents the third in four months the waiting list has increased after falling slightly in June following an increase in April and May.

Yvette Cooper, secretary of state for health and social care said: ‘This has been the most demanding summer on record for our A&E and ambulance staff, with heavy pressure on our NHS and winter still to come.

‘With the support of this Government, the NHS has worked hard to strengthen its ability to respond to these challenges, but the reality is that extreme demand is no longer confined to winter. That's why we're backing the NHS with record investment and rolling out plans to support services through both summer and winter pressure.'

The NHS faced the busiest summer in its history, with A&E attendances in June, July and August topping 7.2m (7,268,445), the highest ever total and more than 240,000 more attendances than the same period last year (7,027,384).

Records were achieved in terms of A&E patients admitted or discharged within four hours (5,462,182), ambulance call outs (2,455,833 June-August), people seen in July following an urgent suspected cancer referral (308,200) and people receiving a vital diagnostic test (June and July, (5,374,603).

NHSE said it remained on track to its elective treatment targets in 2026/27.

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Tim Gardner, deputy director of policy at The Health Foundation, said: ‘While NHS waiting lists often rise at this time of year, the lack of sustained progress towards ending hospital backlogs is concerning. The overall waiting list for routine hospital treatment increased to 7.33m in July, and the percentage of waits within 18 weeks decreased slightly to 65.4%.'

Professor Frank Smith, vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said: 'The NHS has made progress in reducing waiting times, which is a credit to the enormous efforts of staff. However, our analysis shows that, if the pace of improvement seen over the last two years continues, no region in England will restore the 18-week standard by 2029.'

Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of The King's Fund, said: ‘It will take a cross-Government approach of tackling and adapting to climate change to protect people from its worst impacts alongside action to keep people healthy and prevent them from needing the health service in the first place when confronted with potentially dangerously high temperatures.

'Extreme heat is now an NHS pressure point, not just a weather story. If ministers want to protect patients, staff and performance, they need to treat climate resilience and delivering a radical shift to prevention as core health policy.'

Deputy director of policy at The NHS Alliance, David Williams, said: ‘This year's heatwaves underlined the need for capital investment to modernise the health service's often-dilapidated estate, for better patient and staff wellbeing and to drive improved productivity.'