Independent · England · Published NHS data

Make sense of your NHS wait

See how long you have been waiting, read the published waiting-time figures for the service and hospital involved, and understand how NHS referrals actually move. Plain English, no login.

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We publish factual information only. Published figures describe how long groups of patients have been waiting — they cannot tell you your own appointment or treatment date.

Start where you are

Published NHS England waiting-time information, with sources and dates shown on every page.

Explore NHS waiting times

Choose how you want to look at the published NHS England waiting-time figures.

By specialtyPublished England figures for each consultant-led service, from trauma and orthopaedics to dermatology.By hospital trustHow each NHS trust's published waiting times compare, service by service.By areaThe NHS trusts serving a city or region, side by side.Diagnostic testsPublished waits for scans and tests, including MRI, CT and endoscopy.

About these figures

Published waiting-time measures: See the published waiting-time figures for a service and compare them with the time you have already been waiting.
When the figures are from: The dataset, the period it covers and the publication date are shown on every page, so you always know how current a figure is.
What the figures cannot show: Aggregate figures describe groups of patients. They cannot give you a personal appointment date or tell you where you are on a list.

How we use NHS data · Read our methodology

Wait Check

What the Wait Check shows you

Enter your referral date and what you are waiting for. Everything you see is drawn from published NHS England data, with its date and limitations stated on screen.

Start the Wait Check

How long you have waitedElapsed time from the referral date you enter, in weeks and days.Published contextThe most recent published figures for that service and provider, where they exist.England comparisonHow those published figures sit against the England picture for the same service.

Freshness and source

Which dataset each number comes from, the period it covers, and what it leaves out — set out in full in our data sources.

Aggregate published figures describe groups of patients. They do not predict an individual appointment or treatment date, and nothing here is medical or legal advice.

Understand what happens while you wait

A wait makes more sense when you know how it is measured, what happens behind the scenes after a referral, and what published NHS data can tell you about waiting times.

18-week calculatorWork out where your wait sits against the NHS Referral to Treatment standard for England.Open the calculator How NHS referrals moveTriage, booking, diagnostics and the stages in between — explained calmly, step by step.Read the pathway map Your NHS rightsPatient choice, PALS, and what the published standards do and do not entitle you to.Read your rights

How this site works

Independent

NHS Wait Helper is an independent service and is not affiliated with the NHS.

England, published data only

Pages are built from published NHS England datasets and are refreshed as new releases appear.

Information, not advice

We do not give medical or legal advice and we do not predict appointment dates.

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