Waiting times by location
NHS waiting times near Birmingham
8 NHS trusts within 15 miles of Birmingham city centre reported referral-to-treatment figures for August 2026.
- NHS trusts with data
- 8
- People waiting (combined)
- 364,508
- Sum of published trust totals
- Best-performing trust
- 81.8%
- share under 18 weeks
- Lowest
- 60.1%
- share under 18 weeks
Trusts compared
Sorted by straight-line distance from a reference point in central Birmingham (not an administrative boundary; distances are between registered addresses, not travel time). All-services figures hide large differences between individual services, so open a trust to see service-level figures.
| Trust | Distance | Waiting | Under 18 weeks | Over 52 weeks | Tests over 6 wks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust | 0.2 mi | 23,360 | 66% | 142 | 26.8% |
| Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust | 0.2 mi | 15,544 | 82% | 2 | — |
| Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust | 2.5 mi | 67,228 | 60% | 461 | 29.6% |
| University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust | 3.2 mi | 96,303 | 67% | 175 | 40.7% |
| The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 5.5 mi | 13,473 | 66% | 69 | 0.4% |
| Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust | 8.1 mi | 28,492 | 73% | 11 | 27.7% |
| The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust | 9.6 mi | 48,892 | 63% | 21 | 15.2% |
| The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust | 11.7 mi | 71,216 | 64% | 1,059 | 4.8% |
A further 21 NHS-funded independent-sector and other providers in this area are not listed because their case mix makes direct comparison misleading.
Services where local trusts differ most
Gap in the share waiting under 18 weeks between the highest and lowest trust here, for services with at least 200 people waiting.
Neurology · 5 trusts · England 62.3%
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust: 92.8% — The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust: 48.2% (gap 44.6 pp)
Cardiology · 5 trusts · England 67.9%
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust: 93.6% — Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust: 49.9% (gap 43.7 pp)
Gastroenterology · 5 trusts · England 69.7%
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust: 92.3% — Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust: 50.4% (gap 41.9 pp)
Oral surgery · 6 trusts · England 53.8%
Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust: 78.9% — The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust: 38.7% (gap 40.2 pp)
Gynaecology · 6 trusts · England 59.6%
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust: 78.5% — University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust: 45.9% (gap 32.6 pp)
Dermatology · 5 trusts · England 69.0%
The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust: 87.0% — Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust: 55.5% (gap 31.4 pp)
Ear, nose and throat (ENT) · 5 trusts · England 56.8%
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust: 68.6% — Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust: 38.5% (gap 30.1 pp)
Rheumatology · 5 trusts · England 70.4%
Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust: 92.8% — Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust: 66.0% (gap 26.8 pp)
How 18-week performance changed over 12 months
Of the 68 hospital-and-specialty pages for NHS trusts within 15 miles of Birmingham with enough comparable published history (5 organisations), these are the 12-month changes in the share of each waiting list waiting under 18 weeks, August 2025 to August 2026:
- 29 of 6818-week performance improved by 3 or more percentage points
- 22 of 6818-week performance broadly stable (change under 3 percentage points)
- 17 of 6818-week performance deteriorated by 3 or more percentage points
These are counts of provider-and-specialty pages, not people. A large and a small waiting list each count once, so the counts describe how many published lists moved in each direction, not how waits changed for patients in general. They do not predict any individual wait and say nothing about quality of care. Figures are for whole trusts or providers, not individual hospital sites. Lists are alphabetical, not ranked.
18-week performance improved by 3 or more percentage points (29 pages, first 5 A–Z)
- Cardiology, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust · 39.9% → 49.9%
- Gynaecology, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust · 44.8% → 57.2%
- Neurology, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust · 44.1% → 49.1%
- Ophthalmology, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust · 75.7% → 78.9%
- Orthopaedics, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust · 54.6% → 58.7%
24 more in this group. Every hospital page is listed in the hospital trust directory.
18-week performance broadly stable (change under 3 percentage points) (22 pages, first 5 A–Z)
- Ear, nose and throat (ENT), Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust · 39.3% → 38.6%
- Gastroenterology, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust · 48.2% → 50.4%
- General surgery, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust · 62.8% → 63.9%
- Oral surgery, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust · 44.3% → 47.1%
- Dermatology, The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust · 70.5% → 68.5%
17 more in this group. Every hospital page is listed in the hospital trust directory.
18-week performance deteriorated by 3 or more percentage points (17 pages, first 5 A–Z)
- Dermatology, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust · 69.3% → 55.5%
- Respiratory medicine, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust · 88.1% → 81.7%
- Ear, nose and throat (ENT), The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust · 59.5% → 51.4%
- General surgery, The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust · 58.5% → 46.7%
- Oral surgery, The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust · 52.3% → 48.2%
12 more in this group. Every hospital page is listed in the hospital trust directory.
NHS waiting trends across England explains the method and covers every specialty and area.
Related areas
Other area pages covering the same NHS trusts.
- NHS trusts in the West Midlands
Birmingham trusts report into this NHS region
Distance is not travel time
Distances are straight-line between registered addresses and city centres. Trusts often run several hospital sites, so the site you would attend may be closer or further.
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
- NHS patient choice explained
Background on the legal basis of NHS patient choice.
- How to switch hospitals for faster NHS treatment
Reference article on how hospital switching works within the NHS.
- Work out how long you've waited
Explains how the 18-week measure is counted and what a published percentage represents.
- Your rights while you wait
Reference article on what the 18-week standard is and is not.