How is your NHS hospital doing on waiting times?

Doctors and groups of patients warn that the NHS in England faces a difficult fight for the number one of the government’s NHS – Improve hospital waiting times.

They are concerned about the lack of progress towards the strike of the 18 -week waiting time objective, one of the main electoral promises of labor. It has not been met since 2015.

Since the election, the proportion of patients waiting for less than 18 weeks has improved, but less than a percentage point.

And an analysis of hospital trusts by the BBC check more than a third see a smaller share of patients in the 18 weeks that have since the NHS improvement plan was announced in January.

But the government said it was premature to suggest that progress was too slow because the NHS had started to advance only the government’s improvement plan in April. Before that, he had focused on other priorities, in particular by attacking the longest expectations.

He said that waiting times had continued to improve even during the winter – the first time it had happened for 10 years – was encouraging.

And in an interview with the BBC, Wes Streting Health Secretary said that progress would go “further and faster” in the coming years, helped by the additional money invested and the NHS plan at 10, which should be published next week.

He said lots had been reached so far, including millions of additional meetings, and the total number of patients on the waiting list falling at less than 7.4 million, his lowest level for two years.

On the 18-week goal, he recognized that there was “much more to do”, before adding: “There is a big challenge here. Let’s meet him? Absolutely. We are not going to drop people.”

The government has promised to achieve the objective by March 2029, which requires that 92% of patients be seen within 18 weeks.

In January, each hospital trust received its own individual performance objectives to be achieved by March 2026 as the first step in carrying out this commitment.

BBC VERIFY is launching an interactive tool, which we will update in case of new data, so that you can know to what extent your local NHS services are good. We included the NHS Trusts in England which had at least 5,000 cases pending in November.

John Winnik does not know when he will receive treatment for a problem with his back.

West Yorkshire’s grandfather, who has arthritis, has been on a NHS waiting list for nine months so far – much longer than the 18 weeks which, according to the health service, should be the limit.

The 73 -year -old paid privately to go to Lithuania for a right hip replacement last year, after spending more than a year on the NHS waiting list.

He also has injections in his left hip, which will possibly have to replace.

“I live in constant pain,” said Winnik, an independent consultant in the glass plastic industry. “I forgot what it is not to suffer, to be honest. I have not played golf for two years and if I do five minutes of gardening, I am broken.”

The president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Tim Mitchell, said: “The NHS changes course, but the sails are still lacking in wind.

“Progress is underway in certain parts of the country, but it is too slow to achieve the government’s ambition to reach the 18 -week goal by the end of this Parliament.

“Delayed operations mean that patients have left the wait in pain, their condition was potentially deteriorating.”

He said that the additional money put in the NHS in the coming years would help, but that “serious underinvestment” in infrastructure such as operational rooms over the years hinders efforts.

Deborah Alsina, director general of the group of patients against arthritis, also has doubts, saying that there was skepticism as to the achievement of rapid progress.

And she added: “It is impossible to overestimate the personal, physical and mental number to be stuck on a waiting list in daily pain, sometimes for years.

“There is also a broader impact on society, with many people on the waiting lists that should abandon the work, despite wanting to stay in employment and becoming more and more dependent on the others.”

Provisional targets for average trust in March 2026 must either see 60% of patients within 18 weeks of the reference, or improve their November 2024 position of five percentage points – according to the largest.

The NHS overall in England should ensure that 65% of patients are not waiting for more than 18 weeks – currently less than 60%.

The majority of trustees have already started to progress, but an BBC verification analysis shows 50 – more than a third – are now more distant from the target since November 2024.

Once the trusts that have improved are taken into account, the overall trend is however positive.

A handful of trusts have already arrived where they must be next March – as long as they can keep their waiting lists.

Mersey and West Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust Until now has more than 48,000 patients waiting for less than 18 weeks, 64.2% of the total, in April. This increased by 58.7% in November.

East Sussex Healthcare Nhs Trust also reached 60.1% in April, compared to 54.9% in November.

The largest improvement target has been set to The confidence of Princess Alexandra Hospital In Harlow, according to our analysis. In November, 41.8% of his patients were waiting for less than 18 weeks. By April, this had increased to around 48.8% – one of the largest improvements in England so far. But it must increase more than 11 percentage points next March.

Paht Managing Director Thom Lafferty said they were “delighted” with their progress.

“We recognize the impact of patients waiting for care and we improve integration and collaboration with our partners to ensure that patients can access the right care, at the right time.”

Some trusts have a higher mountain to climb because their figures have been lowered since November.

Trust of the middle and south of the Essex NHS started with 52.8% of patients waiting for less than 18 weeks in November. But when the clock started in April, it fell 47%.

Two of his theaters at Basildon Hospital were closed to work with some of the trust rooms in the trust and this has increased references.

The chief executive officer, Matthew Hopkins, said that he was soon putting clinics and had a new orthopedic procedural room that was opening up soon, adding: “We are convinced that we will improve our waiting times and improve patient experience.”

Others that have fallen despite significant improvements include the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital Orthopedic (Rjah) in Shropshire (compared to 48.3% to 44.9%) and Countess of ChesterFrom 49.6% to 47.1%.

Cathy Chadwick, director of the Comtesse de Chester, said that more clinics and investment in new technologies would reduce the waiting lists and that the trust was confident to achieve the goal by next March.

An Rjah spokesperson said: “We have a clear ambition to reach the 60% target by March 2026, and are convinced that the plans we have put in place will allow us to do so.”

The targets in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are different and the temporary targets for the next march set by the British government do not apply.

However, the NHS does not achieve waiting time objectives in any nation.

While Scotland targets 90% of patients to be treated within 18 weeks of orientation, in Wales, the objective is that 95% of patients expect less than 26 weeks.

In Northern Ireland, 55% of patients should not wait more than 13 weeks for the case of a day or treatment for hospitalized patients.

Interactive tool produced by Alli Shulttes, Rebecca French, Ollie Lux Rigby, Chris Kay, Adam Allen, Avi Holden and Rebecca Wedge-Roberts