Nhs Waiting List At Lowest Level In Three Years

The infirmary waiting database successful England has dropped to its lowest level successful astir 3 years.

At nan extremity of December 2025 location were 7.29 cardinal patients waiting for treatments specified arsenic knee and hep operations. That is nan lowest number since February 2023.

But NHS England's monthly update shows continued agelong waits successful A&E, including a grounds number of 12-hour trolley waits.

More than 71,500 patients spent longer than 12 hours successful January 2026 waiting for a furniture connected nan ward erstwhile they had been assessed by A&E unit – nan highest fig since it started being tracked successful 2010.

It intends astir 1 successful 5 patients who were admitted aft attending A&E waited that long.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said while location had been bully progress, location were immoderate large challenges to overcome.

"There is overmuch much to do. We've sewage to prime up nan pace...but nan NHS is connected nan roadworthy to recovery."

Dr Vicky Price, of nan Society for Acute Medicine, said it was clear hospitals were operating beyond safe levels erstwhile it comes to emergency care.

"These are group unwell capable to request admission, often older and frail pinch analyzable needs, who are astatine nan top consequence of harm erstwhile attraction is being delivered successful corridors and hospitals are operating beyond safe limits."

Duncan Burton, Chief Nursing Officer for England, praised nan advancement being made connected reducing waits, pointing retired this had happened during a play erstwhile nan NHS had to header pinch strikes by resident doctors, nan caller sanction for inferior doctors.

He said it was a "triumph" for nan difficult activity of staff.

But while nan waiting database did drop, capacity against nan 18-week target declined slightly. Some 61.5% of patients were waiting little than 18 weeks - compared to 61.8% successful November. The target is 92%, which nan authorities has promised to meet again by 2029.

Rory Deighton, of nan NHS Confederation, which represents hospitals, said nan advancement was welcome, but added it masked "a wide grade of location variation".

Deighton said: "The NHS is not 1 homogenous body, but is made up of hundreds of abstracted organisations each pinch their ain chopped financial and operational challenges.

"This intends that tackling attraction backlogs will beryllium much difficult successful immoderate parts of nan state than others."