Waiting times by location
NHS waiting times in South West
11 NHS trusts in the South West NHS region reported referral-to-treatment figures for August 2026.
- NHS trusts with data
- 11
- People waiting (combined)
- 545,975
- Sum of published trust totals
- Best-performing trust
- 97.8%
- share under 18 weeks
- Lowest
- 57.6%
- 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.
| Trust | Waiting | Under 18 weeks | Over 52 weeks | Tests over 6 wks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bristol NHS Foundation Trust | 96,608 | 69% | 525 | 9.5% |
| Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust | 820 | 98% | 0 | 74.1% |
| Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 23,100 | 60% | 370 | 22.4% |
| Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 66,529 | 70% | 34 | 17.3% |
| Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 42,540 | 58% | 970 | 6.5% |
| Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust | 45,002 | 73% | 446 | 18.7% |
| Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust | 74,526 | 63% | 1,684 | 38.3% |
| Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust | 43,165 | 70% | 154 | 11.8% |
| Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust | 31,024 | 70% | 126 | 13.8% |
| Somerset NHS Foundation Trust | 55,401 | 64% | 1,702 | 16.7% |
| University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust | 67,260 | 66% | 657 | 13.3% |
A further 60 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.
Dermatology · 10 trusts · England 69.0%
Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust: 82.2% — Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust: 13.0% (gap 69.2 pp)
General surgery · 9 trusts · England 63.2%
University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust: 89.3% — Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: 46.4% (gap 42.9 pp)
Neurology · 8 trusts · England 62.3%
Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 92.8% — Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust: 52.7% (gap 40.1 pp)
Oral surgery · 10 trusts · England 53.8%
Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust: 75.7% — Somerset NHS Foundation Trust: 36.9% (gap 38.8 pp)
Rheumatology · 9 trusts · England 70.4%
Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust: 94.8% — Somerset NHS Foundation Trust: 56.7% (gap 38.1 pp)
Respiratory medicine · 10 trusts · England 74.1%
Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust: 92.4% — Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 59.1% (gap 33.4 pp)
Cardiology · 10 trusts · England 67.9%
University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust: 79.1% — Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: 49.1% (gap 30 pp)
Gynaecology · 10 trusts · England 59.6%
Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust: 77.7% — University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust: 49.0% (gap 28.7 pp)
How 18-week performance changed over 12 months
Of the 71 hospital-and-specialty pages for NHS trusts in the South West 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:
- 39 of 7118-week performance improved by 3 or more percentage points
- 20 of 7118-week performance broadly stable (change under 3 percentage points)
- 12 of 7118-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 (39 pages, first 5 A–Z)
- Ear, nose and throat (ENT), Bristol NHS Foundation Trust · 60% → 66.1%
- Gastroenterology, Bristol NHS Foundation Trust · 67.1% → 79.4%
- Neurology, Bristol NHS Foundation Trust · 63.4% → 67.4%
- Oral surgery, Bristol NHS Foundation Trust · 41% → 65.4%
- Respiratory medicine, Bristol NHS Foundation Trust · 69.9% → 81.3%
34 more in this group. Every hospital page is listed in the hospital trust directory.
18-week performance broadly stable (change under 3 percentage points) (20 pages, first 5 A–Z)
- Dermatology, Bristol NHS Foundation Trust · 82.2% → 81.1%
- Ophthalmology, Bristol NHS Foundation Trust · 77.8% → 75.9%
- General surgery, Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust · 47.1% → 46.4%
- Gynaecology, Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust · 65.5% → 66.5%
- Orthopaedics, Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust · 46.9% → 46.1%
15 more in this group. Every hospital page is listed in the hospital trust directory.
18-week performance deteriorated by 3 or more percentage points (12 pages, first 5 A–Z)
- Cardiology, Bristol NHS Foundation Trust · 65.8% → 59.8%
- Gynaecology, Bristol NHS Foundation Trust · 64.7% → 61.1%
- Orthopaedics, Bristol NHS Foundation Trust · 70.8% → 62.4%
- Rheumatology, Bristol NHS Foundation Trust · 74.4% → 66.8%
- Cardiology, Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust · 69.8% → 49.1%
7 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 Bristol
A population centre inside the South 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.