Waiting lists soared during the pandemic as covid put pressure on hospital capacity and healthcare workers.
Even as society moves past covid restrictions, average waiting times for some specialist services are well over a year.
One department at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has one of top ten longest average waiting times of any department in an NHS trust or hospital, according to analysis of NHS data by The Times.
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The NHS made average waiting times easily available for the first time on My Planned Care.
Updated weekly, it allows you to search how long you're likely to wait to be seen by specialists in each department at each hospital and trust.
Of 1,655 departments, 74 services had waiting times of more than 52 weeks, while 11 had a waiting time of more than 78 weeks, The Times reported this week.
Patients could wait an average of 82 weeks for upper gastrointestinal surgery at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
A further four services, including general surgery at this trust, Wirral University Teaching Hospital, and Warrington and Halton Hospitals, have average waiting times between 57 and 65 weeks, more than a year.
People seeking some specialist services only need to wait a few days to be seen, with the shortest waiting times being two and three weeks for rheumatology and respiratory services at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals.
Longest and shortest waiting times in Merseyside:
Sarah Thwaites, chief officer of local health and care champion Healthwatch Liverpool, told the ECHO: "People understand the pressures that the NHS has been under in recent years and that their treatment may be delayed.
"However, as health services work to bring waiting times down, it's important that they communicate clearly with patients – making information accessible and easy to understand - so that they know what to expect and are reassured that the NHS has not forgotten them.
"Patients also need to know what support is available to them in the meantime and who to tell if their condition changes."
A spokesperson for Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership said: "Waiting lists have increased, in general, across the country during the Covid-19 pandemic, which hit the North West, particularly hard.
"These figures show some good examples of waiting lists being kept to a minimum, but we know there is still work to do.
"Covid-19 had a significant impact on the North West and the NHS in our region. There have been high levels of Covid-19 in our communities over the past two years, leading to high levels of bed occupancy, hospital admissions and staff sickness.
"We are working to reduce waiting lists which have built up as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and we try to prioritise patients with the most urgent conditions.
"Our NHS teams are introducing new ways to deliver services and see patients as quickly as possible. But we may see that waiting lists go up before they start to come down.
"It is important anyone who has symptoms they are concerned about continues to come forward, so they can be seen, diagnosed and treated as quickly as possible."
The full list of hospital waiting times in Merseyside:
