Waiting times by location
NHS waiting times in South East
24 NHS trusts in the South East NHS region reported referral-to-treatment figures for August 2026.
- NHS trusts with data
- 24
- People waiting (combined)
- 1,022,292
- Sum of published trust totals
- Best-performing trust
- 100.0%
- share under 18 weeks
- Lowest
- 52.6%
- 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 94 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 · 17 trusts · England 70.4%
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust: 100.0% — Medway NHS Foundation Trust: 32.1% (gap 67.9 pp)
Orthopaedics · 21 trusts · England 60.9%
Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust: 99.7% — East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust: 44.0% (gap 55.7 pp)
Neurology · 16 trusts · England 62.3%
Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust: 85.7% — Medway NHS Foundation Trust: 31.3% (gap 54.5 pp)
Gynaecology · 19 trusts · England 59.6%
Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust: 100.0% — Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: 45.8% (gap 54.2 pp)
Respiratory medicine · 18 trusts · England 74.1%
Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust: 96.9% — East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust: 44.7% (gap 52.2 pp)
Oral surgery · 16 trusts · England 53.8%
Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust: 85.8% — East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust: 35.9% (gap 49.9 pp)
Cardiology · 20 trusts · England 67.9%
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust: 92.6% — Medway NHS Foundation Trust: 47.7% (gap 44.9 pp)
General surgery · 18 trusts · England 63.2%
Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust: 81.5% — University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust: 37.2% (gap 44.3 pp)
How 18-week performance changed over 12 months
Of the 190 hospital-and-specialty pages for NHS trusts in the South East NHS region with enough comparable published history (20 organisations), these are the 12-month changes in the share of each waiting list waiting under 18 weeks, August 2025 to August 2026:
- 95 of 19018-week performance improved by 3 or more percentage points
- 54 of 19018-week performance broadly stable (change under 3 percentage points)
- 41 of 19018-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 (95 pages, first 5 A–Z)
- Ear, nose and throat (ENT), Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 45% → 59%
- Gastroenterology, Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 25.3% → 73.2%
- Neurology, Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 56% → 61.4%
- Ophthalmology, Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 56% → 64.3%
- Respiratory medicine, Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 57.1% → 68.7%
90 more in this group. Every hospital page is listed in the hospital trust directory.
18-week performance broadly stable (change under 3 percentage points) (54 pages, first 5 A–Z)
- Dermatology, Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 63.9% → 65.1%
- Oral surgery, Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 45.4% → 45.4%
- Orthopaedics, Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 65.8% → 66.5%
- Cardiology, Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust · 62.5% → 62.9%
- General surgery, Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust · 60.3% → 57.5%
49 more in this group. Every hospital page is listed in the hospital trust directory.
18-week performance deteriorated by 3 or more percentage points (41 pages, first 5 A–Z)
- Cardiology, Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 72.5% → 64.7%
- Gynaecology, Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 57.5% → 53.6%
- Ophthalmology, Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust · 65.3% → 62.2%
- Cardiology, Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust · 64.9% → 61%
- Gynaecology, Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust · 59.2% → 55.6%
36 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 South East
- Hospitals near Southampton
A population centre inside the South East
- Hospitals near Reading
A population centre inside the South East
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.