Some 4.3million people were waiting for the likes of hip and cataract ops at the end of September.
Hospitals are meant to treat patients needing non-urgent care within 18 weeks — but 13.3 per cent, around 570,000, have been waiting longer.
This is the worst performance in close on a decade when the figure was then 14.5 per cent.
Emergency admissions hit a record high last month at 542,435 — up 5.7 per cent in a year.
Tom Sandford, from the Royal College of Nursing, said: “Everywhere you look you see our healthcare system buckling.”
Rob Harwood, from the British Medical Association, said: “We are no longer experiencing just a winter crisis in the NHS – it is now a truly year-round crisis.
“These figures should ring alarm bells for the NHS and Government as we approach winter”.
NHS England said: “The NHS continues to look after an increasing number of people who need our care”.
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