What the latest NHS hospital figures for England show

The NHS has published its latest monthly performance figures for hospitals in England, which show long waits for treatment have increased and A&E “corridor care” remains high, though ambulance response times have improved.

Here, the PA news agency looks at the key statistics:

– Overall waiting list

The waiting list for routine hospital treatment has risen for the second month in a row.

An estimated 7.40 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of July, relating to 6.25 million patients, up from 7.37 million treatments and 6.23 million patients at the end of June.

The list hit a record high in September 2023, with 7.77 million treatments and 6.50 million patients.

The size of the list has been on an upward trend for much of the last 10 years, passing three million treatments in 2014, four million in 2017, five million in 2021 and seven million in 2022.

In February 2020, the last full month before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the list stood at 4.57 million treatments.

– Long waits for treatment

Some 1,429 patients had been waiting more than 18 months to start routine treatment at the end of July, up from 1,103 in June.

A year earlier, in July 2024, the number stood at 2,738.

There were 11,950 patients who had been waiting more than 65 weeks to start treatment, up from 10,517 the previous month.

This figure stood at 50,860 in July 2024.

A total of 191,648 people in England had been waiting more than 52 weeks to start routine hospital treatment at the end of July, down slightly from 191,813 at the end of June.

Some 2.6% of people on the list for hospital treatment had been waiting more than 52 weeks in July, unchanged from the previous month.

The Government and NHS England have set a target of March 2026 for this figure to be reduced to less than 1%.

– Accident & emergency waits

Some 75.9% of patients were seen within four hours in A&Es last month, down from 76.4% in July.

The Government and NHS England have set a target of March 2026 for 78% of patients attending A&E to be admitted, discharged or transferred within four hours.

The number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E departments from a decision to admit to actually being admitted – so-called “corridor care” – stood at 35,909 in August, up slightly from 35,467 in July.

The number waiting at least four hours from the decision to admit to admission also rose slightly, standing at 115,826 in August, up from 115,542 in July.

– Cancer referrals

A total of 76.6% of patients urgently referred for suspected cancer were diagnosed or had cancer ruled out within 28 days in July, down slightly from 76.8% in June.

This is above the current target of 75%.

The Government and NHS England have set an additional target of March 2026 for this figure to reach 80%.

There is a large difference between the proportion of patients having cancer ruled out and those having cancer confirmed.

Some 78.2% of patients ruled out of having cancer were told within 28 days in July.

By contrast, just 53.9% of patients had their cancer confirmed within 28 days.

The proportion of patients who had waited no longer than 62 days in July from an urgent suspected cancer referral, or consultant upgrade, to their first definitive treatment for cancer was 69.2%, up from 67.1% in June.

The Government and NHS England have set a target of March 2026 for this figure to reach 75%.

GPs in England made 305,164 urgent cancer referrals in July, a new record for a calendar month and up from 279,390 in June.

– Ambulance response times

The average response time in August for ambulances dealing with the most urgent incidents, defined as calls from people with life-threatening illnesses or injuries, was seven minutes and 47 seconds.

This is down slightly from seven minutes and 56 seconds in July but is above the target standard response time of seven minutes.

Ambulances took an average of 27 minutes and three seconds last month to respond to emergency calls such as heart attacks, strokes and sepsis.

This is down from 28 minutes and 40 seconds in July and is the fastest response time for this category of call-out since May 2021.

The Government and NHS England have set a target for this figure to average 30 minutes across 2025/26.

Response times for urgent calls, such as late stages of labour, non-severe burns and diabetes, averaged one hour, 32 minutes and 49 seconds in August, down from one hour, 40 minutes and 46 seconds in July.

– Diagnostic tests

More than 375,000 people had been waiting longer than six weeks for a key diagnostic test in July.

Some 378,816 patients, 21.9% of the total, were waiting longer than six weeks for one of 15 standard tests, including an MRI scan, non-obstetric ultrasound or gastroscopy.

This is up from 369,531 in June (21.3% of the total) and higher than the figure a year earlier in July 2024, which was 363,773 (22.4%).