NHS Wait Helper

Waiting times by location

NHS waiting times in North East

8 NHS trusts in the North East NHS region reported referral-to-treatment figures for August 2026.

NHS trusts with data
8
People waiting (combined)
337,990
Sum of published trust totals
Best-performing trust
99.3%
share under 18 weeks
Lowest
64.2%
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.

NHS trusts in North East
TrustWaitingUnder 18 weeksOver 52 weeksTests over 6 wks
County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust54,41064%1,41018.0%
Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust15599%0—
Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust11,75375%87.3%
North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust24,06370%2252.2%
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust39,30184%00.3%
South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust58,45866%73015.9%
South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust61,73875%021.6%
The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust88,11273%72220.4%

A further 20 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.

  • Rheumatology · 7 trusts · England 70.4%

    The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 90.0% — County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust: 44.6% (gap 45.5 pp)

  • Gastroenterology · 7 trusts · England 69.7%

    Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust: 97.4% — County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust: 57.1% (gap 40.3 pp)

  • General medicine · 4 trusts · England 72.3%

    Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust: 99.6% — County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust: 62.7% (gap 36.9 pp)

  • Respiratory medicine · 7 trusts · England 74.1%

    The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 94.8% — North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust: 61.0% (gap 33.8 pp)

  • General surgery · 7 trusts · England 63.2%

    Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust: 91.4% — North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust: 59.6% (gap 31.8 pp)

  • Cardiology · 7 trusts · England 67.9%

    Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust: 97.3% — Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust: 66.3% (gap 31 pp)

  • Gynaecology · 7 trusts · England 59.6%

    The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 82.1% — North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust: 52.3% (gap 29.8 pp)

  • Orthopaedics · 7 trusts · England 60.9%

    North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust: 85.1% — South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust: 55.4% (gap 29.7 pp)

How 18-week performance changed over 12 months

Of the 78 hospital-and-specialty pages for NHS trusts in the North East NHS region with enough comparable published history (7 organisations), these are the 12-month changes in the share of each waiting list waiting under 18 weeks, August 2025 to August 2026:

  • 35 of 7818-week performance improved by 3 or more percentage points
  • 17 of 7818-week performance broadly stable (change under 3 percentage points)
  • 26 of 7818-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 (35 pages, first 5 A–Z)

30 more in this group. Every hospital page is listed in the hospital trust directory.

18-week performance broadly stable (change under 3 percentage points) (17 pages, first 5 A–Z)

12 more in this group. Every hospital page is listed in the hospital trust directory.

18-week performance deteriorated by 3 or more percentage points (26 pages, first 5 A–Z)

21 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.

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

Related pages

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