Referral to treatment (RTT) data for August 2026, published 8 October 2026 · Page updated 2 November 2026

Compare NHS hospital waiting times side by side

Choose two to four NHS trusts in England, or a hospital they run, and optionally a specialty, to see their waiting times next to each other and next to England. Figures are for patients waiting at the end of August 2026, from NHS England.

Past figures, not a promise. These are NHS England figures for patients who were already on the waiting list at the end of August 2026: how long they had waited so far. They are not a forecast or a guarantee of how long a new patient will wait, and waits can change quickly. Waiting Times UK is an independent website, not part of the NHS, and this is not medical advice.

Not sure where to start? Try the three trusts with the largest waiting lists, or see every trust ranked for a specialty.

How does this comparison work?

Each column shows one NHS trust’s referral to treatment (RTT) figures for the specialty you choose, or for its whole waiting list. The England column is the national figure for the same specialty. Searching for a hospital finds the trust that runs it: the 786 hospital names come from the NHS Organisation Data Service, and the figures are always the trust’s, because NHS England does not publish RTT waits for individual hospitals. The page address updates as you choose, so you can bookmark or share a comparison.

What do these measures mean?

• Median weeks waited: half the pathways on the list had waited this long or less so far, at the end of the month.
• Under 18 weeks: the share of the list that had waited less than 18 weeks (the NHS standard is 92%). Pathways with an unknown start date are left out, as NHS England does.
• 92nd percentile: 92% of pathways had waited this many weeks or less.
• Pathways waiting: the size of the list. A pathway is one patient’s wait for one specialty; a person can be on more than one list.
• Over 52 weeks: pathways that had waited more than a year.

NHS England publishes these figures for each trust as a whole, not for each hospital. A trust can run several hospitals, so the site you are treated at may have a different wait. A trust is shown for a specialty only if at least 20 pathways were waiting. Specialist trusts, and trusts that take complex referrals from elsewhere, are not like for like with general hospitals.

Can I choose a hospital with a shorter wait?

In England you have a legal right to start consultant-led, non-urgent treatment within 18 weeks of referral, with some exceptions, and you can usually choose where you are referred for a first outpatient appointment. Each hospital has a Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) that can help with questions about your wait. Your waiting time rights explained.

Not medical advice. If your symptoms change or get worse while you wait, contact your GP or the team treating you. If it is not an emergency, NHS 111 online or calling 111 can tell you where to go, including urgent treatment centres, which often have shorter waits. Call 999 or go to A&E for life-threatening emergencies such as chest pain, difficulty breathing, severe bleeding or signs of a stroke.

See also trust rankings by specialty, compare NHS trusts on all measures, waits near your postcode and every specialty at every trust.