Key Performance Indicators
Charts
Referral to Treatment (RTT) Waiting Times
The elective backlog is the defining NHS story of the decade: how many people are waiting for planned hospital care, and how long. These four charts track the total list, where it's concentrated, and the two waits that matter most politically - over 18 weeks and over a year.
NHS Waiting List
The NHS waiting list in England was 7.11 million in March 2026, down from a record 7.7 million in late 2023. The current figure is shown above.
NHS Waiting List by Specialty
The waiting list by treatment area. Trauma and orthopaedics, such as hip and knee operations, plus eye care and gynaecology have the longest queues.
Patients Waiting Over 18 Weeks
In March 2026, 65.3% of patients were treated within 18 weeks, against the NHS target of 92%. The target was last met in 2016.
Patients Waiting Over 52 Weeks
The number waiting more than a year peaked in the hundreds of thousands after the pandemic and has since fallen by almost half over the past year.
A&E & Emergency Care
Emergency care is where NHS pressure becomes visible first. Rising attendances meeting constrained capacity produce the four-hour breaches, corridor care and winter crises that dominate health coverage.
A&E Seen Within 4 Hours
In early 2026, around 64% of A&E patients were seen within four hours, against the 95% target last met in 2015.
Total A&E Attendances
A&E attendances hit a record 27.8 million in England in 2025, often more than two million a month.
GP Appointments
General practice handles the overwhelming majority of NHS contacts, and how easily people can see a GP shapes public perception of the whole service - as well as demand everywhere else in the system.
Monthly GP Appointments
GP practices in England deliver over 30 million appointments a month, more than before the pandemic.
Appointment Mode Split
Around two-thirds of GP appointments are now face-to-face, after in-person visits fell below half during the pandemic.
Ambulance Response Times
Ambulance response standards are among the most safety-critical in the NHS: for cardiac arrests and strokes, minutes translate directly into survival and recovery odds.
Life-threatening Response Time
The latest average Category 1 ambulance response, for life-threatening emergencies, is about 8 minutes, against a 7-minute target.
Emergency Response Time
The latest average Category 2 ambulance response, for strokes and heart attacks, is about 33 minutes, against an 18-minute target. It peaked near 90 minutes in the 2022 crisis.
Cancer Waiting Times
Faster diagnosis and treatment measurably improve cancer survival, which is why the referral-to-treatment standards below carry more clinical weight than almost any other NHS target.
Cancer Treatment Within 62 Days
In April 2026, 70% of cancer patients started treatment within 62 days of an urgent referral, against the 85% target last met in 2015.
About this data
All figures come from NHS England's official monthly statistics - referral-to-treatment waiting times, A&E activity, ambulance quality indicators, cancer waiting times and GP appointments - and cover England only, since Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run and report their health services separately. Data is typically published around six weeks after the month it covers and is sometimes revised.
NHS performance is strongly seasonal: winter reliably brings worse A&E and ambulance figures, and holiday months dent GP appointment volumes. Comparing the same month across years is almost always more informative than comparing consecutive months.
Frequently asked questions
How many people are on the NHS waiting list?
Around 7 million people are waiting for planned hospital treatment in England, down from a record 7.7 million in late 2023. The live figure is shown on the waiting list chart.
Has the NHS met its A&E four-hour target?
No. The 95% four-hour A&E target was last met in 2015. Around a third of A&E patients now wait longer than four hours.
What is the NHS cancer waiting time target?
The target is for 85% of cancer patients to start treatment within 62 days of an urgent referral. It was last met in 2015, and about a third of patients currently wait longer.
What is the NHS 18-week target?
The NHS Constitution says patients referred for consultant-led, non-urgent treatment in England should start that treatment within 18 weeks of referral. The percentage of the waiting list within 18 weeks is the headline measure of elective care performance.
What actually counts as the NHS waiting list?
The headline figure counts incomplete referral-to-treatment pathways in England, not individual people. One person can be on the list more than once if they have been referred for more than one condition, so the number of patients waiting is somewhat lower than the number of pathways.
What are the ambulance response categories?
Category 1 is for life-threatening emergencies, with a 7-minute average response target. Category 2 covers serious emergencies such as strokes, with an 18-minute average target. Categories 3 and 4 cover urgent and less urgent calls with longer standards.
Why is the four-hour A&E target important?
The four-hour standard measures the time from arrival at A&E to admission, transfer or discharge. It is treated as a barometer of the whole urgent-care system, because problems elsewhere - full hospital beds, delayed discharges, pressure on GPs - all tend to surface as longer A&E waits.
Where does the NHS data on this page come from?
All figures are drawn from NHS England's official monthly statistical publications, covering referral-to-treatment waiting times, A&E attendances, ambulance quality indicators, cancer waiting times and GP appointments. The charts update as each new monthly release is published.