NHS Wait Helper

Hospital service waiting times

Ophthalmology waiting times at North Cheshire and Mersey NHS Foundation Trust

At the end of August 2026, 2,686 people were on the Ophthalmology at North Cheshire and Mersey NHS Foundation Trust waiting list and about 8 in 10 people (85%) had been waiting less than 18 weeks.

North Cheshire and Mersey NHS Foundation Trust · NHS trust · Ophthalmology across England

People waiting
2,686
End of August 2026
Under 18 weeks
84.6%
England: 72.2%
Over 52 weeks
0
Median wait
10 wks
Published median for this list

No one on this list had been waiting more than 52 weeks in August 2026.

This hospital's published position is 12.4 percentage points better than the England figure for this service.

Why this page exists

This page combines facts that neither the organisation page nor the England specialty page shows on its own: the current published figure for this one service at this one organisation; how that figure has moved over the months we hold; the England figure for the same service in the same month; other NHS trusts within 25 miles reporting the same service; the published median wait and 52-week count for this list; the other services this organisation reports. This service accounts for 7.6% of everyone waiting at North Cheshire and Mersey NHS Foundation Trust.

How published 18-week performance has changed

Ophthalmology, NHS England Referral to Treatment figures, April 2024 to August 2026.

18-week performance broadly stable

Published 18-week performance for Ophthalmology at this organisation has been broadly stable over the past 12 months (a change of under 3 percentage points): 84.6% of people on the waiting list at the end of August 2026 had been waiting under 18 weeks, compared with 85.2% at the end of August 2025.

Share of people on the waiting list who had been waiting under 18 weeks, at the end of each month. Scale runs from 0% to 100%.
Latest · August 2026
84.6%
3 months earlier · May 2026
90.2% then · change to latest -5.5 percentage points
6 months earlier · February 2026
89.9% then · change to latest -5.3 percentage points
12 months earlier · August 2025
85.2% then · change to latest -0.6 percentage points
Earliest available · April 2024
71.1% then · change to latest +13.6 percentage points
Month-by-month figures
Share waiting under 18 weeks by month
Month endUnder 18 weeksPeople waiting
August 202684.6%2,686
July 202687.4%2,555
June 202687.9%2,349
May 202690.2%2,247
April 202690.6%2,167
March 202690%1,943
February 202689.9%1,897
January 202688.9%1,803
December 202587.3%1,791
November 202587.7%1,886
October 202586.5%1,979
September 202585.7%1,926
August 202585.2%1,836
July 202582.2%2,002
June 202581.4%2,045
May 202584.3%2,127
April 202585.5%2,395
March 202581.7%2,501
February 202583.1%2,611
January 202582.2%2,715
December 202477.5%2,802
November 202474.7%2,960
October 202471.1%3,024
September 202468.9%3,127
August 202469.9%3,081
July 202471.5%3,182
June 202473%3,306
May 202472.1%3,328
April 202471.1%3,192
How we calculate change
  • Each month's figure is the number of people waiting under 18 weeks divided by everyone on the waiting list, from NHS England's published monthly files.
  • Changes compare the latest month with exactly 3, 6 and 12 months earlier, only where both months are published and the list has at least 50 people.
  • The 12-month label is "improved" or "deteriorated" only if the share moved by 3 percentage points or more; smaller moves are called "broadly stable".
  • Where NHS England reissued a month's file, we use the revised file. Months we do not have are left as gaps and never estimated.
  • Earlier months come from our archive of NHS England's published files and are checked against our current figures wherever both exist.

What these figures cannot tell you

  • These are whole-list figures for one specialty at one organisation. They describe the published waiting list, not how long any one person will wait.
  • This specialty covers many conditions and treatments. These figures are not specific to any one operation or condition.
  • Figures are published for the whole organisation, which may run several hospital sites. They do not show the position at any single site.
  • Patients are prioritised by clinical need, so people on the same list can wait very different times.
  • A higher share within 18 weeks is not a measure of the quality of care.

Other NHS trusts offering ophthalmology within 25 miles

Published figures only. These are whole-list figures for each organisation in one month; a different organisation's published position does not mean an individual referral would move faster there.

Alternative trusts for Ophthalmology
TrustDistanceWaitingUnder 18 weeksDifference
Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust7.4 mi3,87169%-15.6 pp
Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust11.3 mi1,59582%-3.1 pp
Bolton NHS Foundation Trust13.3 mi5,03670%-14.2 pp
Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust13.5 mi6,19551%-33.7 pp
The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust14.1 mi786%+1.1 pp

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.

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