NHS surgeons are only working at around 50 per cent capacity in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, despite record numbers of people on the waiting list. 

Professor Neil Mortensen, president of the The Royal College of Surgeons, revealed surgeons 'didn't have much to do' during the lockdown, as routine operations were cancelled to make room for Covid-19 patients.

But now they were struggling to pick up numbers again due to Covid-19 safety measures, such as social distancing and an inability to mass test, despite there being hardly any Covid-19 patients in the hospitals.

There are no more than 770 patients with the disease in hospital across the UK, just 64 of whom are on ventilators.