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

Cardiothoracic (heart and lung) surgery waiting times by hospital in England

What does the cardiothoracic surgery waiting list count?

NHS England counts treatment function 170 (cardiothoracic surgery) here or, where a hospital records them separately, cardiac surgery (172) and thoracic surgery (173) added together. The NHS Data Dictionary describes this as surgery for diseases of the heart and the organs inside the chest, such as the lungs. Heart and lung transplant services have their own code (174), and cardiology (320) is reported as a separate list.

These are referral to treatment (RTT) figures. NHS England counts people referred for non-emergency, consultant-led treatment, from referral until treatment starts, whether or not they need an operation. A pathway is one person’s wait for one specialty, so one person can be counted more than once. The figures are for hospitals in England only; NHS England does not publish waits for individual operations or conditions within a specialty.

Sources: NHS England: RTT statistics user guidance, definitions, quality and methodological information (October 2026); NHS England Data Dictionary: main specialty and treatment function codes.

How long is the NHS cardiothoracic surgery waiting list in England?

Cardiothoracic surgery was the 18th largest of 18 specialty lists in August 2026, with 0.1% of all 7,189,213 pathways. Its median wait so far of 9.6 weeks was shorter than the 12.2 weeks for all specialties together, and 1.2% of its pathways had passed a year, against 1.6% overall. The 92nd percentile was 34 weeks: 8 in 100 cardiothoracic surgery pathways had waited longer than that. Of the 2,386 cardiothoracic surgery pathways that ended in August 2026, 57.0% ended with a hospital admission, while 2,500 new ones started.

Has the cardiothoracic surgery waiting list changed since February 2026?

The cardiothoracic surgery list shrank by 525 pathways (5.6%) from 9,323 in February 2026 to 8,798 in August 2026, compared with a 0.5% rise in the waiting list for all specialties. It went up in 1 and down in 5 of the 6 monthly steps; the biggest fall was June 2026 to July 2026 (9,161 to 8,807). Waits of over a year fell from 155 to 106; the median wait so far fell from 11.1 weeks to 9.6 weeks; the share waiting under 18 weeks rose from 71.4% to 73.6%.

Among the 26 NHS trusts ranked here that also reported in February 2026, the cardiothoracic surgery list grew most at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (501 to 661) and fell most at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (511 to 447).

The NHS England files do not give reasons for changes, so we do not suggest any.

How do cardiothoracic surgery waits vary by region?

East of England had the highest share of its cardiothoracic surgery list under 18 weeks (81.6%) and North West the lowest (63.7%). North West had the most people waiting, 2,818 or 32.0% of the regional total, and North West the largest share waiting over a year (2.8%). Midlands had the most ranked trusts (8) and South West the fewest (2).

Regional figures are our sums of the trust figures, including independent providers. A regional median cannot be worked out from the published counts, so the last column shows the range of trust medians. Where a region has only one or two ranked trusts, its figure mostly reflects those hospitals.

Which NHS trusts have the shortest and longest median cardiothoracic surgery waits?

Of the 15 NHS trusts with at least 200 cardiothoracic surgery pathways, St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust had the shortest median wait so far, 4.9 weeks with 303 waiting, and Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust the longest, 18.6 weeks with 876 waiting. The cut-off is 200 rather than the 1,000 used on our larger specialty pages, because fewer trusts have long cardiothoracic surgery lists.

The median is how long half the people on a trust’s list had waited so far, so a short median on a small list can change a lot from month to month.

How long are cardiothoracic surgery waits at each NHS trust?

29 NHS trusts had at least 20 cardiothoracic surgery pathways waiting and a published median. The largest lists were at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (1,054), Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (876) and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (817), and the five largest trust lists held 44.7% of everyone waiting at NHS trusts. 3 of the 29 met the 92% 18-week standard for cardiothoracic surgery, and 16 had nobody waiting over a year. 13 other NHS trusts had smaller lists or no published median.

Of the 106 cardiothoracic surgery pathways over a year in England, 83 (78.3%) were at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (60), Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (17) and Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (6).

Trusts are grouped by region and listed A to Z. Use the last column for each trust’s own page, search by postcode, or get every provider in the CSV download.

How does cardiothoracic surgery compare with cardiology?

People looking at cardiothoracic surgery waits often also look at cardiology, the medical (non-surgical) care of heart conditions. In August 2026 the cardiology list had 362,143 pathways, a median wait so far of 11.9 weeks and 67.9% under 18 weeks, against 9.6 weeks and 73.6% for cardiothoracic surgery. See Cardiology waiting times in England.

What can these figures not tell you?

Cardiothoracic surgery is concentrated in a limited number of specialist centres that take referrals from a wide area, so a trust’s cardiothoracic surgery figure is not a like-for-like comparison with a small local hospital.

• Figures are for the whole trust, not a single hospital site, clinic or consultant.
• They show how long people already on the list had waited so far, not how long a new referral will take, and urgent referrals are usually seen sooner than the median.
• Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland publish their own figures, which are not compared here: see Public Health Scotland (open data at opendata.nhs.scot), StatsWales and the Welsh Government NHS activity and performance summary, the Department of Health (Northern Ireland) hospital waiting times statistics.

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.

Where can I find more?

• Every NHS trust ranked for cardiothoracic surgery
• Compare cardiothoracic surgery waits at two to four hospitals
• Cardiothoracic surgery waits near your postcode
• Operation and treatment waits for every specialty
• NHS surgery waiting times by specialty
• How long does an NHS referral take?

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.