Waiting times by location
NHS waiting times in East of England
14 NHS trusts in the East of England NHS region reported referral-to-treatment figures for August 2026.
- NHS trusts with data
- 14
- People waiting (combined)
- 785,664
- Sum of published trust totals
- Best-performing trust
- 80.5%
- share under 18 weeks
- Lowest
- 30.9%
- share under 18 weeks
Trusts compared
Trusts whose registered region is this NHS region, listed alphabetically. Regions are NHS England administrative areas, so a trust near a boundary may serve people across it. All-services figures hide large differences between individual services, so open a trust to see service-level figures.
| Trust | Waiting | Under 18 weeks | Over 52 weeks | Tests over 6 wks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 86,990 | 60% | 1,215 | 29.0% |
| Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 60,401 | 66% | 724 | 27.5% |
| Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust | 55 | 31% | 7 | — |
| East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust | 57,636 | 65% | 853 | 43.7% |
| East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust | 95,346 | 61% | 410 | 11.1% |
| James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 31,209 | 61% | 802 | 34.5% |
| Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust | 165,277 | 50% | 13,427 | 42.2% |
| Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 66,059 | 64% | 1,803 | 24.2% |
| North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust | 75,563 | 60% | 450 | 40.3% |
| Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 5,955 | 81% | 22 | 56.8% |
| The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust | 40,233 | 67% | 411 | 34.9% |
| The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn, NHS Foundation Trust | 23,666 | 65% | 259 | 37.3% |
| West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust | 44,408 | 69% | 393 | 24.8% |
| West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust | 32,866 | 65% | 613 | 15.5% |
A further 58 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.
General medicine · 6 trusts · England 72.3%
Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 95.3% — Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 34.7% (gap 60.6 pp)
Neurology · 12 trusts · England 62.3%
East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust: 94.8% — East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust: 47.7% (gap 47.1 pp)
Oral surgery · 11 trusts · England 53.8%
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn, NHS Foundation Trust: 78.3% — Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust: 32.7% (gap 45.7 pp)
Rheumatology · 12 trusts · England 70.4%
Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 90.4% — Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust: 44.7% (gap 45.7 pp)
Respiratory medicine · 13 trusts · England 74.1%
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 96.2% — The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn, NHS Foundation Trust: 50.8% (gap 45.4 pp)
Orthopaedics · 12 trusts · England 60.9%
James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 73.0% — Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust: 28.6% (gap 44.4 pp)
Cardiology · 13 trusts · England 67.9%
East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust: 94.5% — North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust: 51.9% (gap 42.7 pp)
Gastroenterology · 12 trusts · England 69.7%
West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust: 91.7% — Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust: 51.8% (gap 39.9 pp)
How 18-week performance changed over 12 months
Of the 153 hospital-and-specialty pages for NHS trusts in the East of England NHS region with enough comparable published history (11 organisations), these are the 12-month changes in the share of each waiting list waiting under 18 weeks, August 2025 to August 2026:
- 88 of 15318-week performance improved by 3 or more percentage points
- 44 of 15318-week performance broadly stable (change under 3 percentage points)
- 21 of 15318-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 (88 pages, first 5 A–Z)
- Cardiology, Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 54.3% → 58.7%
- Gastroenterology, Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 65.1% → 73.6%
- General medicine, Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 92.2% → 95.3%
- Gynaecology, Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 55.7% → 66.1%
- Neurology, Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 46.1% → 57.2%
83 more in this group. Every hospital page is listed in the hospital trust directory.
18-week performance broadly stable (change under 3 percentage points) (44 pages, first 5 A–Z)
- General surgery, Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 58.3% → 55.4%
- Ophthalmology, Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 70.8% → 69.5%
- Orthopaedics, Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 43.4% → 45.5%
- Urology, Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 63.8% → 61.8%
- General medicine, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 33.3% → 34.7%
39 more in this group. Every hospital page is listed in the hospital trust directory.
18-week performance deteriorated by 3 or more percentage points (21 pages, first 5 A–Z)
- Dermatology, Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 64.9% → 54.1%
- Ear, nose and throat (ENT), Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 56.6% → 53.3%
- Oral surgery, Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 47.8% → 42.5%
- Rheumatology, Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 94.7% → 90.4%
- General medicine, East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust · 59.4% → 35.4%
16 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.
- Hospitals near London
A population centre inside the East of England
- Hospitals near Cambridge
A population centre inside the East of England
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.