Indicators from the GP Access Survey related to people’s experiences of NHS waiting times in England.

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.

Indicators from the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN) related to NHS waiting lists, with breakdowns by different population groups.

In April 2025, there were a total of *** million waiting for elective treatment in England. Half of them (the median) have been waiting for 13.3 weeks. The pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic on the NHS can be seen in the wait times, although the median wait had been slowly increasing even before the pandemic. This statistic displays the median wait time for elective (non-urgent) treatment in NHS England from August 2007 to April 2025 (in weeks).

Waiting times or waiting list statistics. Source agency: Health Designation: National Statistics Language: English Alternative title: NHS Inpatient and Outpatient Waiting Times, England Data and Resources waiting times figures - 30 Nov 2007 waiting times figures - 30 Nov 2007

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. Prior to February 2017, rheumatology data for Betsi Cadwaladr has been over reported due to the fact that they erroneously included DEXA scans in the data they submitted. From February 2017 onwards the data submitted by the health board is correct. The health board is currently investigating whether it will be possible to resubmit their historic data excluding DEXA scans, as these are not reportable under RTT. From April 2016, there has been a change in the treatment function codes submitted by the local health boards. 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.

Update of Waiting Times Statistics • Quarterly waiting times statistics for the 18 weeks Referral to Treatment standard. • Stage of treatment - Summary of waiting times and waiting lists in the acute sector of NHS Scotland. • Diagnostic - Measurement of Current • Emergency Departments - moved to a separate release as Emergency Department Activity under Unscheduled Care programme from 29 November 2011. From February 2010 to November 2011 these publications were released as separate titles as described above. Source agency: ISD Scotland (part of NHS National Services Scotland) Designation: National Statistics Language: English Alternative title: NHS Scotland Waiting Times

Diagnostic test waiting. Source agency: NHS England Designation: Official Statistics not designated as National Statistics Language: English Alternative title: NHS Diagnostics Waiting Times and Acitivities

Information on Consultant-led Referral to Treatment (RtT) waiting times, monitoring length of time from referral through to elective treatment. Source agency: NHS England Designation: National Statistics Language: English Alternative title: Consultant-led Referral to Treatment Waiting Times

Monthly RTT waiting times data has been published since March 2007. Initially data was only published for cases where patients started treatment during the month and the treatment involved admission to hospital (completed admitted pathways). Completed non-admitted pathway data (cases where patients completed their RTT pathway during the month for reasons other than an inpatient or day case admission to hospital for treatment) has been published since August 2007. Incomplete RTT pathway data (cases where patients are still waiting to start treatment at the end of the reporting period) has also been published since August 2007. Adjusted completed admitted RTT pathway data was published from March 2008 to September 2015. Incomplete RTT pathway with a decision to admit for treatment data and New RTT period data has been published since October 2015. This data is published on the NHS England website. Please follow the link below.

Information on the waiting times of patients with suspected cancer and those subsequently diagnosed with cancer

Source agency: NHS England

Designation: National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Statistics on Waiting Times for Suspected and Diagnosed Cancer Patients Annual Report

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.

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.

Waiting Times and Waiting Lists. Prior to February 2010, "Diagnostic Test Waiting Times" and "Accident and Emergency Waiting Times" were published under this title but from this date onwards they will be released separately. From May 2011 this publication will be renamed 'Hospital Waiting Times'.

Source agency: ISD Scotland (part of NHS National Services Scotland)

Designation: National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Waiting Times and Waiting Lists

These statistics present the number of new referrals to mental health services for which the referral reason was suspected autism, as well as their waiting times to first appointment. These are Experimental Statistics and are being published to involve users and stakeholders in their development and as a means to build in quality at an early stage. This publication presents a partial picture of autism as assessments for autism may be undertaken in a variety of care settings. We are working closely with the Autism programme at NHS England to understand how this activity should flow across our mental health and community data sets and how to continue the development of this national reporting.

The waiting time for patients from referral by their GP to treatment at London NHS hospitals.

This information covers patients admitted to hospital, those not admitted, and those patients still waiting (incomplete care pathways). It shows the following measures for each:

•Percentage of patients waiting less than 18 weeks •Numbers (volume) of patients •Median Wait (weeks) •95th Percentile (weeks) :

Data source: Department of Health Referral To Treatment (RTT) data collections

Indicators from the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN) related to people’s experiences of GP practice access and NHS waiting times in England.