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

General internal medicine waiting times: NHS waiting list by hospital in England

What does the general internal medicine waiting list count?

General internal medicine (treatment function 300) was formerly called general medicine. NHS England counts code 300 only: hepatology (306), diabetes (307), blood and marrow transplantation (308) and haemophilia (309) are reported in its “Other – Medical Services” line instead. The NHS Data Dictionary says general medicine services include adults admitted as emergencies; emergency admissions are not referral to treatment pathways, so they are not in these figures.

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 general internal medicine waiting list in England?

General internal medicine was the 16th largest of 18 specialty lists in August 2026, with 0.4% of all 7,189,213 pathways. Its median wait so far of 10.2 weeks was shorter than the 12.2 weeks for all specialties together, and 0.7% of its pathways had passed a year, against 1.6% overall. The 92nd percentile was 33 weeks: 8 in 100 general internal medicine pathways had waited longer than that. Of the 8,425 general internal medicine pathways that ended in August 2026, 11.9% ended with a hospital admission, while 9,478 new ones started.

Has the general internal medicine waiting list changed since February 2026?

The general internal medicine list shrank by 6,077 pathways (16.1%) from 37,666 in February 2026 to 31,589 in August 2026, compared with a 0.5% rise in the waiting list for all specialties. It went up in 2 and down in 4 of the 6 monthly steps; the biggest fall was July 2026 to August 2026 (35,308 to 31,589). Waits of over a year fell from 361 to 222; the median wait so far fell from 11.4 weeks to 10.2 weeks; the share waiting under 18 weeks rose from 68.1% to 72.3%.

Among the 69 NHS trusts ranked here that also reported in February 2026, the general internal medicine list grew most at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust (1,485 to 1,949) and fell most at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (2,223 to 77).

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

How do general internal medicine waits vary by region?

North West had the highest share of its general internal medicine list under 18 weeks (87.1%) and London the lowest (62.3%). Midlands had the most people waiting, 8,489 or 26.9% of the regional total, and East of England the largest share waiting over a year (2.5%). Midlands had the most ranked trusts (14) and South West the fewest (4).

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 general internal medicine waits?

Of the 29 NHS trusts with at least 200 general internal medicine pathways, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn, NHS Foundation Trust had the shortest median wait so far, 5.1 weeks with 285 waiting, and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust the longest, 25.9 weeks with 798 waiting. The cut-off is 200 rather than the 1,000 used on our larger specialty pages, because fewer trusts have long general internal 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 general internal medicine waits at each NHS trust?

74 NHS trusts had at least 20 general internal medicine pathways waiting and a published median. The largest lists were at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (5,530), The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (4,795) and Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (2,312), and the five largest trust lists held 51.5% of everyone waiting at NHS trusts. 31 of the 74 met the 92% 18-week standard for general internal medicine, and 56 had nobody waiting over a year. 25 other NHS trusts had smaller lists or no published median.

Of the 222 general internal medicine pathways over a year in England, 151 (68.0%) were at The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (56), Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (48) and Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (47).

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.

Which independent providers treat NHS general internal medicine patients?

1 independent-sector provider had at least 50 NHS-funded general internal medicine pathways waiting; the largest was Dorking Healthcare Limited (Dhc) with 83. Their figures cover NHS patients only, not people paying privately.

How does general internal medicine compare with elderly medicine?

People looking at general internal medicine waits often also look at elderly medicine (code 430), the list that hospitals keep specifically for older people. In August 2026 the elderly medicine list had 27,431 pathways, a median wait so far of 7.6 weeks and 84.3% under 18 weeks, against 10.2 weeks and 72.3% for general internal medicine. See Elderly medicine waiting times in England.

What can these figures not tell you?

Trusts that record most medical outpatient care under named specialties, such as cardiology or gastroenterology, will show a smaller code 300 list than trusts that do not, so a trust’s general internal 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 general internal medicine
• Compare general internal medicine waits at two to four hospitals
• General internal 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.