The NHS waiting list for routine hospital treatment in England has fallen to its lowest level in more than two years, new figures reveal. However, the data shows a concerning rise in long waits for treatment and continued failures to meet cancer targets.
An estimated 7.36 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of May, relating to just under 6.23 million patients. This represents a slight decrease from 7.39 million treatments and just over 6.23 million patients at the end of April.
Lowest figures since 2023
These are the lowest figures since March 2023 for treatments and April 2023 for patients. The waiting list had reached a record high in September 2023, with 7.77 million treatments and 6.50 million patients.
The size of the list had been on an upward trend for much of the last decade, 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 Covid-19 pandemic, the list stood at 4.57 million treatments.
Long waits continue to rise
Despite the overall reduction, some patients face increasingly lengthy delays. A total of 196,920 people in England had been waiting more than 52 weeks to start routine hospital treatment at the end of May, up from 190,068 at the end of April.
This marks the second consecutive month that this figure has increased, having previously fallen for 10 consecutive months. Some 2.7% of people on the waiting list for hospital treatment had been waiting more than 52 weeks in May, up from 2.6% in April.
Government targets under pressure
The Government and NHS England have set a target of March 2026 for the proportion of patients waiting more than 52 weeks to be reduced to less than 1%. There were 11,522 patients who had been waiting more than 65 weeks to start treatment, up from 9,258 the previous month.
Meanwhile, 1,237 patients had been waiting more than 18 months to start routine treatment at the end of May, down from 1,361 in April. A year earlier, in May 2024, the number stood at 4,597.
A&E performance shows modest gains
Accident and emergency departments saw 75.5% of patients within four hours last month, up slightly from 75.4% in May. 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 experiencing "corridor care" - waiting more than 12 hours in A&E departments from a decision to admit to actually being admitted - stood at 38,683 in June, down from 42,891 in May. The number waiting at least four hours from the decision to admit to admission also fell, standing at 118,171 in June, down from 130,035 in May.
Cancer targets continue to slip
Cancer referral performance deteriorated further, with 74.8% of patients in England urgently referred for suspected cancer diagnosed or having cancer ruled out within 28 days in May. This represents a decline from 76.7% in April and marks the third consecutive monthly fall.
The Government and NHS England have set a target of March 2026 for this figure to reach 80%. The proportion of patients who had waited no longer than 62 days from an urgent suspected cancer referral to their first definitive treatment was 67.8%, down from 69.9% in April.
Ambulance response times worsen
Ambulance response times for the most urgent incidents averaged seven minutes and 55 seconds in June, up slightly from seven minutes and 50 seconds in May. This exceeds the target standard response time of seven minutes.
For emergency calls such as heart attacks, strokes and sepsis, ambulances took an average of 29 minutes and 37 seconds last month to respond, up from 27 minutes and 48 seconds in May. The Government and NHS England have set a new target for this figure to average 30 minutes across 2025/26.
Diagnostic test delays persist
More than 375,000 people had been waiting longer than six weeks for a key diagnostic test in May. Some 376,669 patients, representing 22% of the total, were waiting longer than six weeks for one of 15 standard tests, including MRI scans, non-obstetric ultrasounds or gastroscopies.
This figure increased from 360,370 in April and remains higher than the 366,091 recorded in May 2024. GPs in England made 265,468 urgent cancer referrals in May, up from 264,880 in April but down year-on-year from 271,710 in May 2024.
(PA) Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
