NHS hospital performance in England: What the latest data shows

The NHS has published its latest monthly performance figures for hospitals in England, which show A&E “corridor care” remains high, cancer targets have been missed and ambulance response times have lengthened.

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

– Overall waiting list

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

An estimated 7.41 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of August, relating to 6.26 million patients, up slightly from 7.40 million treatments and 6.25 million patients at the end of July.

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 1,416 patients had been waiting more than 18 months to start routine hospital treatment at the end of August, down slightly from 1,429 in July.

A year earlier, in August 2024, the number stood at 3,335.

There were 12,805 patients who had been waiting more than 65 weeks to start treatment, up from 11,950 the previous month.

This figure stood at 45,527 in August 2024.

A total of 191,493 people in England had been waiting more than 52 weeks to start treatment at the end of August, down slightly from 191,648 at the end of July.

A year earlier, the figure stood at 282,664.

Some 2.6% of people on the list for hospital treatment had been waiting more than 52 weeks in August, 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 75.0% of patients were seen within four hours in A&Es last month, down from 75.9% in August.

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 in England from a decision to admit to actually being admitted – so-called “corridor care” – stood at 44,765 in September, up from 35,909 in August.

The number waiting at least four hours from the decision to admit to admission also rose, standing at 129,035 in September, up from 115,826 in August.

– Cancer referrals

A total of 74.6% of patients in England urgently referred for suspected cancer were diagnosed or had cancer ruled out within 28 days in August, down from 76.6% in July.

This is below 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 76.1% of those patients ruled out of having cancer were told within 28 days in August.

By contrast, just 52.7% of patients had their cancer confirmed within 28 days.

The proportion of patients who had waited no longer than 62 days in August from an urgent suspected cancer referral, or consultant upgrade, to their first definitive treatment for cancer was 69.1%, down slightly from 69.2% in July.

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

GPs in England made 264,388 urgent cancer referrals in August, down from a record 305,164 in July but up year on year from 255,547 in August 2024.

– Ambulance response times

The average response time in September for ambulances dealing with the most urgent incidents, defined as calls from people with life-threatening illnesses or injuries, was eight minutes and one second.

This is up from seven minutes and 47 seconds in August and is above the target standard response time of seven minutes.

Ambulances took an average of 30 minutes and 46 seconds last month to respond to emergency calls such as heart attacks, strokes and sepsis.

This is up from 27 minutes and three seconds in August.

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

The average currently stands at 28 minutes and 35 seconds.

Response times for urgent calls, such as late stages of labour, non-severe burns and diabetes, averaged one hour, 56 minutes and 52 seconds in September, up from one hour, 32 minutes and 49 seconds in August.

– Diagnostic tests

Nearly 400,000 people had been waiting longer than six weeks for a key diagnostic test in August.

Some 397,381 patients, 24.0% 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 378,816 in July (21.9% of the total) and higher than the figure a year earlier in August 2024, which was 374,205 (24.0%).