Hospital waiting times
Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: NHS waiting times
At the end of June 2026, 32,730 people were on the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust all-services waiting list and about 7 in 10 people (68%) had been waiting less than 18 weeks.
NHS trust · North West · ODS code RJR
- People waiting (all services)
- 32,730
- End of June 2026
- Under 18 weeks
- 67.5%
- England: 65.8%
- Over 52 weeks
- 237
- Services reported
- 15
- with people currently waiting
237 people (0.7%, roughly 1 in 143) had been waiting more than 52 weeks.
Figures are for the whole organisation (trust level), not for an individual hospital site or clinic. The all-services total is the published organisation total, not a sum of the service rows.
Waiting times by service
Each row is one consultant-led service at this organisation, compared with the England figure for the same service in the same month.
| Service | Waiting | Under 18 weeks | England | Over 52 weeks | 6-month change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ophthalmology | 3,467 | 66% | 73.8% | 8 | +9.5 pp |
| Ear, nose and throat (ENT) | 2,983 | 70% | 59.0% | 18 | +33.4 pp |
| Gynaecology | 2,923 | 57% | 61.0% | 97 | +5.1 pp |
| Dermatology | 2,493 | 74% | 69.0% | 3 | +17.9 pp |
| Orthopaedics | 2,417 | 63% | 60.6% | 2 | -1.3 pp |
| Oral surgery | 2,237 | 45% | 55.0% | 28 | -1.4 pp |
| Urology | 1,313 | 71% | 65.0% | 0 | +14.1 pp |
| Respiratory medicine | 1,131 | 85% | 74.8% | 2 | +15.4 pp |
| General surgery | 1,048 | 68% | 63.0% | 6 | +11.2 pp |
| Plastic surgery | 963 | 72% | 59.3% | 11 | +22.5 pp |
| Cardiology | 875 | 87% | 68.2% | 2 | +29.6 pp |
| Gastroenterology | 850 | 89% | 69.3% | 0 | +18.9 pp |
| Rheumatology | 497 | 95% | 70.8% | 0 | +36.3 pp |
| Elderly medicine | 211 | 90% | 83.1% | 0 | +20.6 pp |
| General medicine | 65 | 94% | 71.4% | 0 | +5 pp |
How this has changed
Between July 2025 and June 2026 the share of people waiting at Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust waiting under 18 weeks improved by 16.8 percentage points (51% to 68%).
Share waiting under 18 weeks: up 3.3 points over 3 months (64.2% in March 2026); up 13.7 points over 6 months (53.8% in December 2025).
Share seen within 18 weeks, month by month
Improving · +16.8 pointsPercentage of people seen within 18 weeks, over the last 12 published months.
View these figures as a table
| Month | Within 18 weeks |
|---|---|
| July 2025 | 50.7% |
| August 2025 | 48.8% |
| September 2025 | 51.7% |
| October 2025 | 52.3% |
| November 2025 | 53.1% |
| December 2025 | 53.8% |
| January 2026 | 55.2% |
| February 2026 | 58.6% |
| March 2026 | 64.2% |
| April 2026 | 66% |
| May 2026 | 66.6% |
| June 2026 | 67.5% |
Month-to-month movements of less than two percentage points are treated as normal variation rather than a real change in direction.
Month-by-month figures
| Month | Waiting | Under 18 weeks | Over 52 weeks |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 2025 | 38,536 | 50.7% | 3,267 |
| August 2025 | 38,056 | 48.8% | 3,366 |
| September 2025 | 37,571 | 51.7% | 2,811 |
| October 2025 | 36,726 | 52.3% | 2,560 |
| November 2025 | 35,072 | 53.1% | 2,038 |
| December 2025 | 33,921 | 53.8% | 1,468 |
| January 2026 | 32,997 | 55.2% | 1,182 |
| February 2026 | 32,838 | 58.6% | 1,062 |
| March 2026 | 30,603 | 64.2% | 272 |
| April 2026 | 31,892 | 66.0% | 263 |
| May 2026 | 32,255 | 66.6% | 219 |
| June 2026 | 32,730 | 67.5% | 237 |
Diagnostic tests
Tests are measured against a separate six-week standard. Figures for June 2026.
- Ultrasound (non-obstetric)3,229 waiting · 10.6% over 6 wks
- MRI scan1,099 waiting · 7.6% over 6 wks
- Echocardiogram733 waiting · 27.3% over 6 wks
- DEXA scan624 waiting · 32.1% over 6 wks
- CT scan580 waiting · 5.0% over 6 wks
- Gastroscopy521 waiting · 25.1% over 6 wks
- Hearing tests (audiology)467 waiting · 38.5% over 6 wks
- Colonoscopy263 waiting · 25.1% over 6 wks
- Sleep studies and lung function148 waiting · 6.8% over 6 wks
- Cystoscopy99 waiting · 1.0% over 6 wks
- Flexible sigmoidoscopy78 waiting · 16.7% over 6 wks
- Urodynamics33 waiting · 12.1% over 6 wks
- Barium enema11 waiting · 0.0% over 6 wks
Nearby NHS trusts
Trusts within 25 miles that report waiting figures. Distances are between registered addresses, not travel time.
- The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust · 10 mi713 waiting · 98%
- Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust · 13.4 mi11,700 waiting · 64%
- Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust · 13.8 mi45,369 waiting · 65%
- Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust · 14 mi5,667 waiting · 79%
- Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 14.1 mi62,986 waiting · 61%
Contact details we hold for this organisation
Appointment letters carry the contact route for the team holding the referral. We only list contact details we have checked against the organisation's own published pages, and none are listed here yet.
What these figures cannot tell you
- Where you are in a queue, or when you will be seen or treated.
- How urgent your own referral is. These are aggregate waiting-list figures and do not show the clinical priority of an individual patient.
- Anything about a specific consultant, clinic or site within a trust.
- What will happen next month: these are end-of-month snapshots of a past period.
Related guides on this site
- Work out how long you've waited
Explains how the 18-week measure is counted and what a published percentage represents.
- How to switch hospitals for faster NHS treatment
Reference article on how hospital switching works within the NHS.
- NHS patient choice explained
Background on the legal basis of NHS patient choice.
- How to use PALS about a waiting list
Reference article explaining what a Patient Advice and Liaison Service does.
- Your rights while you wait
Reference article on what the 18-week standard is and is not.