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

Elderly medicine (geriatric) waiting times: NHS waiting list by hospital in England

What does the elderly medicine waiting list count?

Elderly medicine (treatment function 430) was formerly known as geriatric medicine. The NHS Data Dictionary describes it as services that treat diseases and disabilities in older adults, particularly people with several conditions, and says there is no set age: it depends on the person’s needs. Orthogeriatric care for fragility fractures has its own code (431), which NHS England does not report separately.

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 elderly medicine waiting list in England?

Elderly medicine was the 17th largest of 18 specialty lists in August 2026, with 0.4% of all 7,189,213 pathways. Its median wait so far of 7.6 weeks was shorter than the 12.2 weeks for all specialties together, and 0.3% of its pathways had passed a year, against 1.6% overall. The 92nd percentile was 26 weeks: 8 in 100 elderly medicine pathways had waited longer than that. Of the 8,054 elderly medicine pathways that ended in August 2026, 5.2% ended with a hospital admission, while 10,229 new ones started.

Has the elderly medicine waiting list changed since February 2026?

The elderly medicine list grew by 886 pathways (3.3%) from 26,545 in February 2026 to 27,431 in August 2026, compared with a 0.5% rise in the waiting list for all specialties. It went up in 5 and down in 1 of the 6 monthly steps; the biggest rise was July 2026 to August 2026 (26,838 to 27,431). Waits of over a year fell from 168 to 90; the median wait so far rose from 7.4 weeks to 7.6 weeks; the share waiting under 18 weeks rose from 80.4% to 84.3%.

Among the 106 NHS trusts ranked here that also reported in February 2026, the elderly medicine list grew most at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (417 to 884) and fell most at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust (1,508 to 1,015).

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

How do elderly medicine waits vary by region?

London had the highest share of its elderly medicine list under 18 weeks (92.5%) and Midlands the lowest (75.5%). North West had the most people waiting, 4,891 or 17.8% of the regional total, and Midlands the largest share waiting over a year (1.5%). North East and Yorkshire had the most ranked trusts (20) and South West the fewest (10).

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 elderly medicine waits?

Of the 52 NHS trusts with at least 200 elderly medicine pathways, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust had the shortest median wait so far, 3.6 weeks with 202 waiting, and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust the longest, 19.4 weeks with 1,200 waiting. The cut-off is 200 rather than the 1,000 used on our larger specialty pages, because fewer trusts have long elderly medicine 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 elderly medicine waits at each NHS trust?

106 NHS trusts had at least 20 elderly medicine pathways waiting and a published median. The largest lists were at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (1,399), Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (1,200) and South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust (1,015), and the five largest trust lists held 19.8% of everyone waiting at NHS trusts. 52 of the 106 met the 92% 18-week standard for elderly medicine, and 94 had nobody waiting over a year. 7 other NHS trusts had smaller lists or no published median.

Of the 90 elderly medicine pathways over a year in England, 78 (86.7%) were at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (69), University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust (7) and Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust (2).

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 elderly medicine compare with general internal medicine?

People looking at elderly medicine waits often also look at general internal medicine, the broad adult medical list (code 300) that is not tied to an age group or a named medical specialty. In August 2026 the general internal medicine list had 31,589 pathways, a median wait so far of 10.2 weeks and 72.3% under 18 weeks, against 7.6 weeks and 84.3% for elderly medicine. See General internal medicine waiting times in England.

What can these figures not tell you?

Some hospitals code more of their care for older people as 430 than others do, so a small or large trust list can reflect local recording as well as demand, so a trust’s elderly medicine 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 elderly medicine
• Compare elderly medicine waits at two to four hospitals
• Elderly medicine waits near your postcode
• Operation and treatment waits for every 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.