A patient at the Bolton Trust waited two and a half years for treatment, figures obtained by the PA news agency show.

In a Freedom of Information request to 125 non-specialist acute hospital trusts in England, PA asked hospital trusts how many patients had been waiting for three years in January, how many had been waiting for at least four years, and the longest period a patient had been waiting for an appointment.

Figures provided by Bolton NHS Foundation Trust show one patient had been waiting 132 weeks, two years and seven months, for treatment in the anaesthetics and surgery department as of the end of January.

However, there were zero patients waiting for more than three or four years.

In the 69 trusts that responded to the Freedom of Information Request, PA found that more than 91 patients had been waiting for at least three years.

At least eight have been waiting for four years or more.

The NHS does not routinely publish details on how long patients have been waiting after two years – categorising them all as waiting for “two years or over”.

While there could be reasons behind the data such as patients choosing to delay their appointments or anomalies in the data, the figures obtained suggest some people have been left suffering for years.

Professor Neil Mortensen, president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, a professional body for surgeons, told PA: “It is shocking that people have been waiting years for planned NHS hospital treatment.

“Waiting in limbo for a planned hip, hernia or ear operation can cause real emotional and physical distress.”

The Government and NHS England are hoping to eliminate all waits of more than two years, expect when its the patients choice, by July of this year.

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said the health service is still facing huge pressures but trusts are doing “all they can” to reduce patient backlogs.

Other trusts including Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust had a patient waiting to have Colorectal surgery for 139 weeks.

While, on the other hand, East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust had two patients waiting for more than four years for treatment.