NHS Hospital Performance in England: Key Data and Trends

NHS Performance Figures Highlight Ongoing Challenges in Healthcare

The latest monthly performance figures from the National Health Service (NHS) in England reveal a mixed picture of hospital operations, with some areas showing improvement while others continue to face significant challenges. The data highlights ongoing issues with cancer referrals and A&E wait times, despite some positive developments in the overall waiting list for routine hospital treatment.

Overall Waiting List for Routine Hospital Treatment

The waiting list for routine hospital treatment has seen a slight decrease, moving from 7.41 million treatments and 6.25 million patients at the end of August to 7.39 million treatments and 6.24 million patients by the end of September. This marks a small decline after three consecutive months of increases. However, the waiting list remains significantly higher than it was before the pandemic.

In February 2020, the last full month before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the list stood at 4.57 million treatments. Over the past decade, the size of the waiting list has steadily grown, crossing key thresholds such as three million in 2014, four million in 2017, five million in 2021, and seven million in 2022. The peak was reached in September 2023, when the list hit 7.77 million treatments and 6.50 million patients.

Long Waits for Treatment

Despite the slight reduction in the overall waiting list, some patients are still experiencing long waits. At the end of September, an estimated 1,489 patients had been waiting more than 18 months to start routine hospital treatment, up slightly from 1,418 in August. A year earlier, this number was 2,701.

Additionally, 12,822 patients had been waiting more than 65 weeks to start treatment, an increase from 12,793 the previous month. In September 2024, this figure was 22,884. Meanwhile, 180,329 people had been waiting more than a year to begin treatment, down from 190,549 in August. A year prior, this number stood at 249,024.

Approximately 2.4% of patients on the waiting list had been waiting more than 52 weeks in September, a slight decrease from 2.6% in August. The Government and NHS England aim to reduce this percentage to less than 1% by March 2026.

Accident & Emergency (A&E) Waits

A&E departments continue to experience high levels of "corridor care," where patients wait more than 12 hours from a decision to admit until they are actually admitted. In October, this number rose to 54,314, up from 44,765 in September. Similarly, the number of patients waiting more than four hours from a decision to admit also increased, reaching 142,734 in October compared to 129,004 in September.

In terms of patient satisfaction, 74.1% of patients were seen within four hours in A&Es last month, down from 75.1% in September. The target set by the Government and NHS England is for 78% of patients attending A&E to be admitted, discharged, or transferred within four hours by March 2026.

A&E Performance by Hospital

For the first time, detailed figures have been published showing how individual hospitals perform in terms of A&E efficiency. Among the 155 hospitals with at least 5,000 A&E attendances in October, Moorfields Eye Hospital (City Road Campus) had the highest percentage of patients admitted, transferred, or discharged within four hours at 96.7%. Other top-performing hospitals included Sheffield Children’s Hospital (93.1%) and Royal Liverpool Children’s Hospital (87.0%).

Conversely, Kingston Hospital in London had the lowest percentage at 29.0%, followed by Blackpool Victoria Hospital (35.7%). The data also showed that Blackpool Victoria Hospital had the highest percentage of patients waiting more than 12 hours from arrival at a type 1 or 2 A&E department, at 28.6%.

Cancer Referrals

Cancer referrals remain a critical area of concern. In September, 73.9% of patients urgently referred for suspected cancer were diagnosed or had cancer ruled out within 28 days, slightly below the target of 75%. The goal is to increase this figure to 80% by March 2026.

There is a notable difference between the speed of ruling out cancer and confirming it. While 75.3% of patients who were ruled out of having cancer received a diagnosis within 28 days, only 52.2% of those who had cancer confirmed were given a diagnosis within the same timeframe.

The proportion of patients who waited no longer than 62 days from an urgent suspected cancer referral to their first definitive treatment for cancer was 67.9%, down from 69.1% in August. The target is to reach 75% by March 2026.

GPs made 286,050 urgent cancer referrals in September, an increase from 264,388 in August and 257,138 in September 2024.

Ambulance Response Times

Ambulances responded to the most urgent incidents in an average of eight minutes and one second in October, unchanged from September but above the target of seven minutes. For emergency calls such as heart attacks, strokes, and sepsis, the average response time was 32 minutes and 37 seconds, up from 30 minutes and 46 seconds in September. The target is to reduce this to an average of 30 minutes across 2025/26.

Response times for urgent calls, such as late stages of labor, non-severe burns, and diabetes, averaged two hours, four minutes, and one second in October, up from one hour, 56 minutes, and 52 seconds in September.

Diagnostic Tests

More than 380,000 people were waiting longer than six weeks for a key diagnostic test in September. Specifically, 386,849 patients, or 22.5% of the total, were waiting longer than six weeks for one of 15 standard tests, including MRI scans, non-obstetric ultrasounds, or gastroscopy. This is a slight decrease from 397,381 in August but still higher than the 359,933 recorded in September 2024.