Waiting times by location
NHS waiting times in North West
25 NHS trusts in the North West NHS region reported referral-to-treatment figures for August 2026.
- NHS trusts with data
- 25
- People waiting (combined)
- 1,024,735
- Sum of published trust totals
- Best-performing trust
- 97.4%
- share under 18 weeks
- Lowest
- 55.8%
- 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.
A further 67 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.
Gastroenterology · 18 trusts · England 69.7%
Bolton NHS Foundation Trust: 92.5% — Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 44.1% (gap 48.4 pp)
Urology · 18 trusts · England 64.8%
Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust: 98.2% — Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 51.1% (gap 47.1 pp)
Rheumatology · 17 trusts · England 70.4%
Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust: 95.4% — Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: 50.7% (gap 44.7 pp)
Dermatology · 15 trusts · England 69.0%
University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust: 93.0% — Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust: 49.2% (gap 43.8 pp)
Cardiology · 19 trusts · England 67.9%
Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust: 92.0% — East Cheshire NHS Trust: 51.1% (gap 41 pp)
General surgery · 18 trusts · England 63.2%
Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: 85.3% — Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 44.5% (gap 40.8 pp)
Respiratory medicine · 19 trusts · England 74.1%
East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust: 97.3% — Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: 59.5% (gap 37.8 pp)
Orthopaedics · 19 trusts · England 60.9%
Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust: 87.1% — North Cheshire and Mersey NHS Foundation Trust: 52.1% (gap 35 pp)
How 18-week performance changed over 12 months
Of the 189 hospital-and-specialty pages for NHS trusts in the North West NHS region with enough comparable published history (16 organisations), these are the 12-month changes in the share of each waiting list waiting under 18 weeks, August 2025 to August 2026:
- 124 of 18918-week performance improved by 3 or more percentage points
- 43 of 18918-week performance broadly stable (change under 3 percentage points)
- 22 of 18918-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 (124 pages, first 5 A–Z)
- Ear, nose and throat (ENT), Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 50.4% → 69.9%
- Gastroenterology, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 44.5% → 57.2%
- Gynaecology, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 38.6% → 44.2%
- Ophthalmology, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 61.3% → 67.9%
- Orthopaedics, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 49.2% → 55.5%
119 more in this group. Every hospital page is listed in the hospital trust directory.
18-week performance broadly stable (change under 3 percentage points) (43 pages, first 5 A–Z)
- Cardiology, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 54.3% → 53%
- Cardiothoracic surgery, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 51.2% → 48.6%
- General surgery, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 49.8% → 49.8%
- Oral surgery, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 41.2% → 43.7%
- Respiratory medicine, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 68.8% → 67.8%
38 more in this group. Every hospital page is listed in the hospital trust directory.
18-week performance deteriorated by 3 or more percentage points (22 pages, first 5 A–Z)
- Dermatology, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 92.4% → 65.2%
- Urology, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 57.9% → 51.3%
- Gynaecology, Bolton NHS Foundation Trust · 58.1% → 51.5%
- Ophthalmology, Bolton NHS Foundation Trust · 76.3% → 70.5%
- Rheumatology, Bolton NHS Foundation Trust · 95.3% → 76.3%
17 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 Manchester
A population centre inside the North West
- Hospitals near Liverpool
A population centre inside the North West
- Hospitals near Stoke-on-Trent
A population centre inside the North West
- Hospitals near Preston
A population centre inside the North West
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.