In January, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged that NHS waiting lists will fall and people would get the care they need more quickly.
The Government has missed a key target of eliminating 18-month waits for planned NHS care such as knee and hip replacements, official figures show.
Data from NHS England shows 10,737 people were waiting more than 18 months to start routine treatment at the end of March.
This is down from 29,778 at the end of February.
The Government and NHS England set the ambition of eliminating all waits of more than 18 months by April of this year, excluding exceptionally complex cases or patients who choose to wait longer.
But the latest data shows this target has been missed, with 41% of the 10,737 cases falling into the category of people choosing to wait or exceptionally complex cases. This means 59% of the cases are routine waits.
In January, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged that NHS waiting lists will fall and people would get the care they need more quickly.
However, the figures released on Thursday show that the number of people in England waiting to start routine hospital treatment has risen to a record high.
An estimated 7.3 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of March, up from 7.2 million in February.
A total of 359,798 people in England had been waiting more than 52 weeks to start routine hospital treatment at the end of March, down slightly from 362,498 at the end of February.
