In May 2025, less than half of attendances in the accident and emergency (A&E) department in the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust were seen within **** hours of their arrival. The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust was the provider with the lowest share of patients seen within **** hours in this time period, and as with the rest of the providers shown in the chart, well below the NHS target that ** percent of patients should be seen within **** hours of arrival to A&E. It has been a long time since the target of 95 percent was last achieved by all NHS England providers.

In October 2024, around 73 percent of patients who attended any A&E department (including major A&E, single specialty, and other A&E/minor injury units) in England were seen in four hours or less. This was well below the NHS operational standard, which states that 95 percent of attendees to an A&E department should be seen within four hours. The equivalent data for waiting times purely in hospital A&Es can be found here.

This publication reports on Admitted Patient Care activity in England for the financial year 2024-25 This report includes but is not limited to analysis of hospital episodes by patient demographics, diagnoses, external causes/injuries, operations, bed days, admission method, time waited, specialty, provider level analysis and Adult Critical Care (ACC). It describes NHS Admitted Patient Care Activity, Adult Critical Care activity and performance in hospitals in England. The purpose of this publication is to inform and support strategic and policy-led processes for the benefit of patient care and may also be of interest to researchers, journalists and members of the public interested in NHS hospital activity in England. The data source for this publication is Hospital Episode Statistics (HES). It contains final data and replaces the provisional data that are released each month. HES contains records of all admissions, appointments and attendances at NHS-commissioned hospital services in England. The HES data used in this publication are called 'Finished Consultant Episodes', and each episode relates to a period of care for a patient under a single consultant at a single hospital. Therefore, this report counts the number of episodes of care for admitted patients rather than the number of patients. This publication shows the number of episodes during the period, with breakdowns including by patient's age, gender, diagnosis, procedure involved and by provider. Please send queries or feedback via email to enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk. Author: Secondary Care Open Data and Publications, NHS England. Lead Analyst: Karl Eichler

In October 2024, only 58 percent of patients who attended a hospital accident and emergency (A&E) department in England were seen within four hours. This is among the lowest monthly share of attendees seen within four hours in the provided time interval and is well below the target; that 95 percent of patients in A&E should be seen within fours of arrival. The last month in which the four-hour target was met was in June 2013. As shown in the graph, the share of patients seen within four hours has been decreasing, although it shows signs of increasing again. The equivalent data for waiting times in all A&Es can be found here.

This is a publication on Accident and Emergency (A&E) activity in English NHS hospitals and English NHS-commissioned activity in the independent sector. This annual publication covers the financial year ending March 2022. It contains final data and replaces the provisional data that are published each month. This is a joint publication between NHS Digital and NHS England. This collaboration enables data to be brought together from different sources enabling inclusion of a wider set of breakdowns and measures and a more complete picture to be presented. The data sources for this publication are the Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS) for2020-21 and 2021-22, HES A&E for activity prior to 2020-21 and the A&E Attendances and Emergency Admissions Monthly Situation Reports (MSitAE). This is the second year this report has been produced using ECDS in its submitted format, replacing the use of Hospital Episode Statistics (HES). Further information is available in the Data Quality Statement. The ECDS data set contains several new and additional reporting fields not previously available in HES A&E enabling new insights to be identified from data. Reported information based on these new splits and metrics presented within the report are presented as Experimental Statistics and should be used with caution. Experimental statistics are new official statistics undergoing evaluation. They are published in order to involve users and stakeholders in their development and as a means to build in quality at an early stage. More information about experimental statistics can be found on the UK Statistics Authority website. This publication releases some high level analyses of both ECDS/HES and MSitAE data relating to A&E attendances in NHS hospitals, minor injury units and walk-in centres. It includes analysis by patient demographics, time spent in A&E, distributions by time of arrival and day of week, arriving by ambulance, performance times, waits for admission and re-attendances to A&E within 7 days. The following additional analyses are also included in this report: • Comparison of 4 hour and 12 hour waits between the four home nations, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales • A&E attendances by Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) • A&E attendances by ethnicity • Weekly variation in attendance activity during the pandemic, by department type

In March 2023, a patient in an Accident and Emergency in England would spend approximately 70 minutes waiting before treatment would begin. After the wait times dropped due to COVID-19 effects, it reached a record high of 81 minutes in May 2021 and November 2021. The median wait time for treatment has been fluctuating since the pandemic began in March 2020.

Substantial waiting times experienced by patients

In the first quarter of 2021/2022 in England 83.4 percent of patients who attended A&E were admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours. This is below the NHS’s target that 95 percent of attendees to A&E should be seen within four hours. Since 2011, the share of patients seen within four hours has been declining. In addition, since 2016 there has been a marked increase in examples of patients waiting for more than twelve hours at A&E to be admitted, with a recorded high of 7,161 individuals in 2020/21 third quarter.

Increased number of attendances

The reasons behind the increased waiting times and the missed treatment targets could be partially explained by the increased number of people attending A&E. There were over 6.1 million attendances to the A&E department in England in the first quarter of 2021/22. This figure has been increasing since 2012, which means there is a greater strain on emergency services across the country. The large drop in number of attendances is reflected in wait times and with number of attendances rebounding again, wait times have also increased.

Provisional Accident and Emergency Quality Indicators for England, June 2023, by provider This publication has been delayed to Tuesday 15th August due to data processing issues. Apologies for any inconveniences or impact this may cause The measures included in this publication report on data coverage in ECDS compared with the emergency monthly situation reports MSitAE published by NHS England and NHS Improvement. They also report statistics for total time in A&E, time to assessment, time to treatment, A&E attendances that left before treatment and unplanned reattendances within 7 days. Each report contains national figures and provider level figures. From the January 2023 release, the format of the publication was updated to open data format following a review and consultation. We are continuing to improve publications, please let us know if you have any feedback using the survey link below. Please send queries or feedback via email to enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk Author: Secondary Care Open Data and Publications, NHS England Lead Analyst: Emily Michelmore

A widened scope of emergency department performance statistics are now published on the National Collaborative Commissioning Unit (NCCU) website, as management. This includes measures on the time from patient arrival to triage, the time from patient arrival to contact with a clinical decision maker and analysis of the patient’s discharge destination when they leave the emergency department. These will be updated every month on the same day as this National Statistics publication. For the March 2017 data onwards, there will be a new approach to publishing the emergency departments waiting times data: Prior to August 2012 data, the monthly emergency departments waiting times data was published by Welsh Government as official statistics in a Statistical Release, with more detailed data on StatsWales. A target around the eradication of 12 hour or more waits in all emergency care facilities from April 2013 onwards was introduced in the NHS Wales Delivery Framework for 2013-14, therefore data on the 12 hour target is not available before this date. Until April 2012, data was submitted via SITREPS on a daily and weekly basis. The quality of the daily reported data was not robust enough for publication, therefore data was taken from the validated weekly reports to ensure greater reliability. As a result, the information presented is based on a four/five weekly cycle rather than calendar months. The number of weeks in any given cycle is based on how many Mondays fall between the end of the previous cycle and the end of the month. It is the week end date, always a Monday, which is used to determine the 'month' a particular weekly report belongs to. Months consisting of a 5 week reporting period have a note next to them. Data Prior to January 2013 will not be directly comparable with data for January 2013 onwards due to a change in methodology. See notes in March 2013 release for more details (January 2013). For August 2012 to February 2017 data, the monthly data was published by Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) on their website as management information. For March 2017 data onwards the monthly data is published on StatsWales with the DHCW publication being discontinued. Data for other emergency departments/minor injury units is only shown from April 2012 onwards as this information was not collected through SITREPS. For the January to July 2012 data, Betsi Cadwaladr University LHB was not able to fully implement the change for all months and Cardiff and Vale University LHB was only able to implement it for 26 to 31 January, but have fully implemented it from the February 2012 data. (Cardiff and Vale University informed us that they had to develop and test its systems and train users to ensure a robust collection around clinical exclusions to comply with the new EU compliance guidance. This was completed late in January.) Therefore the Wales figures for December 2011 to July 2012 are likely to be lower than expected. There are some technical changes to emergency department reporting, that have been implemented from December 2011 around clinical and operational exclusions. From December 2011, the guidance below now applies in Wales. So, the two situations below will no longer be counted as a breach of the targets: If a clinician decides that the safest place for a patient is the emergency department, the patient should remain there until it is safe to move them; and patients should not be admitted solely to avoid a breach of the targets. Clinicians should admit patients only to appropriate facilities and only when it is appropriate to do so. For the December 2011 data, Cardiff and Vale University and Betsi Cadwaladr University LHBs were not able to implement the change to the guidance around clinical exclusions.

In 2024, a survey of patients in England asked about their opinions regarding the waiting time they experienced before being admitted to the hospital. According to the results, ** percent of patients did not mind waiting as long as they did, although ** percent would like to have been admitted a lot sooner. This statistic shows the patient's opinion towards time spent on the hospital waiting list in England in 2024.

CPRD GOLD linked Hospital Episode Statistics Accident and Emergency (HES A&E) data contain individual records of patient care administered in the accident and emergency setting in England. These data are a subset of national A&E data collected by NHS England to monitor the national standard that 95% of patients attending A&E should wait no longer than 4 hours from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge. A&E data are submitted by A&E providers of all types in England. Data collected includes details about patients’ attendance, outcomes of attendance, waiting times, referral source, A&E diagnosis, A&E treatment (drugs prescribed not recorded), A&E investigations and Health Resource Group. HES A&E may be used to clarify the health care pathway, to quantity health resource use and costs in the emergency setting, and to assess variations in the uptake of emergency services over time.

CPRD Aurum linked Hospital Episode Statistics Accident and Emergency (HES A&E) data consists of individual records of patient care administered in the accident and emergency setting in England. These data are a subset of national A&E data collected by NHS England to monitor the national standard that 95% of patients attending A&E should wait no longer than 4 hours from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge. A&E data are submitted by A&E providers of all types in England. Data collected includes details about patients’ attendance, outcomes of attendance, waiting times, referral source, A&E diagnosis, A&E treatment (drugs prescribed not recorded), A&E investigations and Health Resource Group. HES A&E may be used to clarify the health care pathway, to quantity health resource use and costs in the emergency setting, and to assess variations in the uptake of emergency services over time.

In 2024, patients in England were asked how they felt about the length of time they had waited in an NHS hospital before getting a bed in a ward. According to the results, *************** of respondents felt that they did not have to wait too long or at all to get a bed in a ward. This statistic shows the patients' opinion about the waiting time spent in the hospital to get a bed in the NHS in England in 2024.

Hospital Episode Statistics Accident and Emergency (HES A&E) data consists of individual records of patient care administered in the accident and emergency setting in England. These data are a subset of national A&E data collected by NHS England to monitor the national standard that 95% of patients attending A&E should wait no longer than 4 hours from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge. A&E data are submitted by A&E providers of all types in England. Data collected includes details about patients’ attendance, outcomes of attendance, waiting times, referral source, A&E diagnosis, A&E treatment (drugs prescribed not recorded), A&E investigations and Health Resource Group. HES A&E may be used to clarify the health care pathway, to quantity health resource use and costs in the emergency setting, and to assess variations in the uptake of emergency services over time.

Record-level patient data set of patients admitted for treatment at NHS hospitals in England, including delivery and birth data. A record represents one episode.

This table provides the current diagnostic and therapy services waiting times data.

In April 2011 a new set of clinical quality indicators was introduced to replace the previous four hour waiting time standard, and measure the quality of care delivered in A&E departments in England. Further details on the background and management of the quality indicators are available from the Department of Health (DH) website. This is the third publication of data on the Accident and Emergency (A&E) clinical quality indicators, drawn from A&E data within provisional Hospital Episode Statistics (HES). These data relate to A&E attendances in June 2011 and draw on 1.4 million detailed records of attendances at major A&E departments, single speciality A&E departments (e.g. dental A&Es), minor injury units and walk-in centres in England. This report sets out data coverage, data quality and performance information for the following five A&E indicators: Left department before being seen for treatment rate Re-attendance rate Time to initial assessment Time to treatment Total time in A&E Publishing these data will help share information on the quality of care of A&E services to stimulate the discussion and debate between patients, clinicians, providers and commissioners, which is needed in a culture of continuous improvement. These A&E HES data are published as experimental statistics to note the shortfalls in the quality and coverage of records submitted via the A&E commissioning data set. The data used in these reports are sourced from Provisional A&E HES data, and as such these data may differ to information extracted directly from Secondary Uses Service (SUS) data, or data extracted directly from local patient administration systems. Provisional HES data may be revised throughout the year (for example, activity data for April 2011 may differ depending on whether they are extracted in August 2011, or later in the year). Indicator data published for earlier months have not been revised using updated HES data extracted in subsequent months. The data presented here represent the output of the existing A&E Commissioning Dataset (CDS V6 Type 010). It must be recognised that these data will not exactly match the data definitions for the A&E clinical quality indicators set out in the guidance document A&E clinical quality indicators: Implementation guidance and data definitions (external link). The DH is currently working with Information Standards Board to amend the existing CDS Type 10 Accident and Emergency to collect the data required to monitor the A&E indicators. A&E HES data are collected and published by the NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care. The data in this report are secondary analyses of HES data produced by the Urgent & Emergency Care team, Department of Health. A&E HES data are published as experimental statistics to note the known shortfalls in the quality of some A&E HES data elements. The published information sets out where data quality for the indicators may be improved by, for example, reducing the number of unknown values (e.g. unknown times to initial assessment) and default values (e.g. the number of attendances that are automatically given a time to initial assessment of midnight 00:00). The quality and coverage of A&E HES data have considerably improved over the years, and the Department and the NHS Information Centre are working with NHS Performance and Information directors to further improve the data.

This table provides the current data on referral to treatment waiting times for patient pathways waiting (open pathway) to start treatment by grouped weeks. Hywel Dda health board has no patients waiting for audiological medicine from January 2019 onwards, this is due to the service moving into the community based model. In March 2016, we changed some of the terminology used in referral to treatment reporting. Previously, when publishing these statistics, we used the terminology ‘patients’. However, some users misinterpreted this as unique patients. It is possible that a person could be on a number of different lists waiting for different conditions – i.e. there would be one patient but more than one pathway. Due to the RTT dataset being an aggregate data collection we’re not able to measure the number of unique patients. Therefore, we are using the terminology ‘patient pathways’, to better reflect the fact that one person can be on multiple waiting lists. The methodology use to measure and calculate these statistics has not changed. This is also more consistent with the other nations of the UK in their reporting of RTT.

Hospital Episode Statistics Outpatient (HES OP) data are a collection of individual records of outpatient appointments occurring in England. The data includes information on the type of outpatient consultation appointment dates, the main specialty and treatment specialty under which the patient was treated, referral source, waiting times, clinical diagnosis and procedures performed. HES OP data can be used to support health resource utilisation studies, clarify clinical health care pathways and enable variations in the uptake of services to be evaluated, for example by gender and age.

During the financial year 2024/25, the busiest hospital provider in England was the ************************************************ with over *** thousand admissions. This trust encompasses four hospitals in the Birmingham area, one of the largest urban areas in England. The second-busiest trust this year was the ******************************************, with approximately *** thousand admissions. Accident and emergency admissionsIn the second quarter of 2024/25, there were around *** million accident and emergency (A&E) attendees in England (including at A&E departments not in hospitals). After the drop in A&E attendances during the COVID-pandemic, numbers have risen again to previous levels, with a trend towards an increasing number of individuals seeking emergency care. Around ****percent of A&E attendees in England in 2024/5 were first diagnosed with a lower respiratory infection. Furthermore, over**** percent were found to have ‘no abnormality detected’ which could be detrimental to a service that is already stretched. Waiting too longOver the last few years in the A&E department, the NHS has been falling behind the target that ** percent of patients should be seen within **** hours of arrival. The last time this target was reached was back in July 2015. Not just the A&E department, but other services also require lengthy waits. It is no wonder that the levels of satisfaction with the way the NHS runs is at an all-time low.