The number of people in England waiting to start routine hospital treatment has risen to a record high, as the NHS continues to face pressure from the backlog in care due to the pandemic.

Some 5.45 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of June, according to the latest figures from NHS England – the highest number since records began in August 2007.

But in signs of progress, the number of patients waiting longer than 18 weeks for care has dropped by almost 25,000.

The number having to wait more than a year to start treatment was 304,803 in June – down from 336,733 the previous month but around six times the number from a year earlier.

NHS England said the health service is experiencing one of its busiest summers ever, and national medical director Professor Stephen Powis said staff are working to “tackle the Covid backlog”.

He said: “NHS staff have made effective use of the additional resources made available to us to recover services which were inevitably disrupted during the pandemic, and we are continuing to tackle the Covid backlog.

“This has come as services have seen some of the highest ever number of patients coming forward for care during the summer months, all at the same time as delivering the biggest and most precise vaccine rollout in our history.”

Ahead of figures being published, NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson said some health trusts are busier than ever amid a multitude of pressures on the service.

He said despite lower levels of Covid hospital admissions recently than had been predicted, there is still a strain on the NHS.

He told BBC Breakfast: “What we can’t do is magic treatment out of thin air.

“What we need is money, but we also need to invest that money in a larger workforce, and that is fundamental to getting through this backlog.

“We simply won’t get through it quick enough unless that funding and investment is there and that is the challenge that the Chancellor and the Prime Minster have to answer, probably over the next three or four/five weeks.”

Modelling from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) at the weekend warned the NHS waiting list in England could rise to 14 million by autumn next year and keep increasing if millions of patients who did not receive care during the pandemic return to the health service for medical attention.

Professor Neil Mortensen, president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said there is still pressure in hospitals due to infection control, Covid patients and staff shortages, and he called for “significant investment in a more sustainable system, adapted to a country where the virus remains endemic” to avoid ever-growing waiting lists.

He said: “This summer, the pressure on emergency departments hasn’t let up. A volatile mix of pressures is hindering the surgical recovery.”