NHS Wait Helper

Waiting times by location

NHS waiting times near Preston

5 NHS trusts within 15 miles of Preston city centre reported referral-to-treatment figures for August 2026.

NHS trusts with data
5
People waiting (combined)
199,356
Sum of published trust totals
Best-performing trust
85.9%
share under 18 weeks
Lowest
58.6%
share under 18 weeks

Trusts compared

Sorted by straight-line distance from a reference point in central Preston (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.

NHS trusts near Preston
TrustDistanceWaitingUnder 18 weeksOver 52 weeksTests over 6 wks
Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust2 mi62,31760%36428.9%
Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust4 mi3,26786%05.3%
East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust10 mi46,34372%1714.3%
Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust13.4 mi41,10659%1,11022.4%
Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust14.5 mi46,32361%1,10811.8%

A further 12 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 · 4 trusts · England 69.7%

    East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust: 92.3% — Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 46.6% (gap 45.6 pp)

  • Cardiology · 4 trusts · England 67.9%

    East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust: 91.0% — Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 53.0% (gap 38.1 pp)

  • Respiratory medicine · 4 trusts · England 74.1%

    East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust: 97.3% — Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 65.3% (gap 32.1 pp)

  • Orthopaedics · 5 trusts · England 60.9%

    Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust: 87.1% — Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 55.5% (gap 31.7 pp)

  • Ear, nose and throat (ENT) · 4 trusts · England 56.8%

    East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust: 78.8% — Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 48.3% (gap 30.6 pp)

  • Urology · 4 trusts · England 64.8%

    East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust: 81.1% — Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 51.3% (gap 29.7 pp)

  • Oral surgery · 4 trusts · England 53.8%

    Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 63.5% — Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 43.7% (gap 19.8 pp)

  • General surgery · 4 trusts · England 63.2%

    East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust: 64.0% — Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 44.5% (gap 19.5 pp)

How 18-week performance changed over 12 months

Of the 50 hospital-and-specialty pages for NHS trusts within 15 miles of Preston with enough comparable published history (4 organisations), these are the 12-month changes in the share of each waiting list waiting under 18 weeks, August 2025 to August 2026:

  • 34 of 5018-week performance improved by 3 or more percentage points
  • 12 of 5018-week performance broadly stable (change under 3 percentage points)
  • 4 of 5018-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 (34 pages, first 5 A–Z)

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

18-week performance broadly stable (change under 3 percentage points) (12 pages, first 5 A–Z)

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

18-week performance deteriorated by 3 or more percentage points (4 pages, A–Z)

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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