Hospital waiting times
Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: NHS waiting times
At the end of August 2026, 23,100 people were on the Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust all-services waiting list and about 6 in 10 people (60%) had been waiting less than 18 weeks.
NHS trust · South West · ODS code RBD
- People waiting (all services)
- 23,100
- End of August 2026
- Under 18 weeks
- 60.3%
- England: 65.2%
- Over 52 weeks
- 370
- Services reported
- 13
- with people currently waiting
370 people (1.6%, roughly 1 in 63) 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orthopaedics | 3,432 | 46% | 60.9% | 140 | +1.9 pp |
| Ear, nose and throat (ENT) | 2,832 | 57% | 56.8% | 38 | +6.5 pp |
| Ophthalmology | 2,605 | 72% | 72.2% | 2 | -3.1 pp |
| Cardiology | 1,790 | 49% | 67.9% | 15 | -14 pp |
| Oral surgery | 1,708 | 53% | 53.8% | 26 | -1.7 pp |
| Gynaecology | 1,580 | 67% | 59.6% | 33 | +0.1 pp |
| Dermatology | 1,552 | 70% | 69.0% | 32 | +10.2 pp |
| General surgery | 1,408 | 46% | 63.2% | 7 | -2.4 pp |
| Urology | 1,375 | 64% | 64.8% | 0 | -5.6 pp |
| Gastroenterology | 995 | 72% | 69.7% | 1 | -5.1 pp |
| Respiratory medicine | 283 | 80% | 74.1% | 0 | -0.9 pp |
| Elderly medicine | 95 | 82% | 84.3% | 0 | +3.1 pp |
| General medicine | 8 | 100% | 72.3% | 0 | +22.2 pp |
How this has changed
Between July 2025 and August 2026 the share of people waiting at Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust waiting under 18 weeks stayed broadly stable (59% to 60%).
Share waiting under 18 weeks: broadly unchanged over 3 months (61.0% in May 2026); broadly unchanged over 6 months (61.0% in February 2026); broadly unchanged over 12 months (58.7% in August 2025).
Share seen within 18 weeks, month by month
18-week performance broadly stable · +0.9 pointsPercentage of people seen within 18 weeks, over the last 14 published months.
View these figures as a table
| Month | Within 18 weeks |
|---|---|
| July 2025 | 59.4% |
| August 2025 | 58.7% |
| September 2025 | 60.2% |
| October 2025 | 60.4% |
| November 2025 | 61% |
| December 2025 | 60.9% |
| January 2026 | 61.9% |
| February 2026 | 61% |
| March 2026 | 62.7% |
| April 2026 | 60.3% |
| May 2026 | 61% |
| June 2026 | 60.5% |
| July 2026 | 60% |
| August 2026 | 60.3% |
Changes of less than 3 percentage points in the share waiting under 18 weeks are treated as broadly stable. This describes the whole waiting list, not how long any one person waits.
Month-by-month figures
| Month | Waiting | Under 18 weeks | Over 52 weeks |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 2025 | 22,406 | 59.4% | 368 |
| August 2025 | 22,300 | 58.7% | 365 |
| September 2025 | 21,411 | 60.2% | 303 |
| October 2025 | 21,240 | 60.4% | 283 |
| November 2025 | 21,127 | 61.0% | 262 |
| December 2025 | 20,838 | 60.9% | 270 |
| January 2026 | 21,209 | 61.9% | 317 |
| February 2026 | 21,139 | 61.0% | 323 |
| March 2026 | 21,497 | 62.7% | 243 |
| April 2026 | 21,967 | 60.3% | 296 |
| May 2026 | 22,351 | 61.0% | 356 |
| June 2026 | 22,644 | 60.5% | 399 |
| July 2026 | 23,380 | 60.0% | 379 |
| August 2026 | 23,100 | 60.3% | 370 |
Diagnostic tests
Tests are measured against a separate six-week standard. Figures for June 2026.
- Echocardiogram1,326 waiting · 45.8% over 6 wks
- Ultrasound (non-obstetric)1,065 waiting · 1.1% over 6 wks
- Colonoscopy650 waiting · 34.5% over 6 wks
- Gastroscopy644 waiting · 35.2% over 6 wks
- CT scan570 waiting · 4.4% over 6 wks
- DEXA scan474 waiting · 15.8% over 6 wks
- MRI scan445 waiting · 2.7% over 6 wks
- Sleep studies and lung function241 waiting · 13.7% over 6 wks
- Nerve conduction studies197 waiting · 12.7% over 6 wks
- Cystoscopy160 waiting · 35.0% over 6 wks
- Flexible sigmoidoscopy111 waiting · 15.3% over 6 wks
- Urodynamics30 waiting · 36.7% over 6 wks
Nearby NHS trusts
Trusts within 25 miles that report waiting figures. Distances are between registered addresses, not travel time.
- University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust · 20.7 mi67,260 waiting · 66%
Waiting times across this area
This organisation is covered by the following area pages, which compare the published figures of every NHS trust in the same area.
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.