TENS of thousands of people have demanded that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stop pitting NHS workers and patients against each other.

As junior doctors entered the second day of a six-day strike yesterday, television presenter Stephen Fry, comedian Jo Brand, fellow comedian and former NHS doctor Adam Kay and poet Michael Rosen were among some 73,000 people revealed to have signed an open letter calling on the government to act to “get waiting times falling immediately.”

They said that millions of people were “getting sicker while waiting” and that the situation was causing them “anxiety and uncertainty” on the first anniversary of Mr Sunak’s claim that cutting the NHS waiting list was one of his top priorities.

Last January, the Tory leader vowed that “NHS waiting lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly,” adding that he wanted the country to hold him to account for delivering on the pledge.

He has since blamed strikes by members of doctors’ union the British Medical Association for holding back progress on waiting times.

The letter, published by  campaign group 38 Degrees, says: “It’s time for you to be held to account.

“We demand that you end your attempts to pit patients and NHS staff against each other.

“We can’t wait, we won’t wait. We need an emergency plan, which gives the NHS whatever it needs, to get waiting times falling immediately.”

The number of patients waiting for treatments has gone up from an estimated 6.08 million in January 2023 to 6.44 million in October, according to the latest figures.

The Department for Health and Social Care said that cutting waiting lists was one of the government’s “top five priorities.”