Waiting times by location
NHS waiting times in West Midlands
19 NHS trusts in the West Midlands NHS region reported referral-to-treatment figures for August 2026.
- NHS trusts with data
- 19
- People waiting (combined)
- 724,718
- Sum of published trust totals
- Best-performing trust
- 97.6%
- share under 18 weeks
- Lowest
- 53.8%
- 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.
| Trust | Waiting | Under 18 weeks | Over 52 weeks | Tests over 6 wks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust | 15,544 | 82% | 2 | — |
| Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust | 23,360 | 66% | 142 | 26.8% |
| George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust | 19,075 | 64% | 87 | 27.3% |
| Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust | 42 | 98% | 0 | — |
| Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust | 10,166 | 91% | 0 | 30.1% |
| Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust | 67,228 | 60% | 461 | 29.6% |
| Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust | 8,213 | 81% | 1 | 5.1% |
| South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust | 31,997 | 67% | 398 | 2.5% |
| The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust | 48,892 | 63% | 21 | 15.2% |
| The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 22,655 | 54% | 2,378 | 7.5% |
| The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 13,473 | 66% | 69 | 0.4% |
| The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust | 71,216 | 64% | 1,059 | 4.8% |
| The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust | 38,312 | 68% | 0 | 20.4% |
| University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust | 96,303 | 67% | 175 | 40.7% |
| University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust | 66,684 | 59% | 2,173 | 4.8% |
| University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust | 75,543 | 60% | 1,737 | 21.6% |
| Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust | 28,492 | 73% | 11 | 27.7% |
| Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust | 59,589 | 61% | 593 | 28.6% |
| Wye Valley NHS Trust | 27,934 | 63% | 799 | 18.2% |
A further 39 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.
Oral surgery · 14 trusts · England 53.8%
Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust: 78.9% — George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust: 25.9% (gap 53.1 pp)
Respiratory medicine · 12 trusts · England 74.1%
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust: 94.0% — South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust: 42.6% (gap 51.4 pp)
Neurology · 9 trusts · England 62.3%
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust: 96.6% — The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust: 48.2% (gap 48.4 pp)
Cardiology · 12 trusts · England 67.9%
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust: 93.6% — Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust: 49.9% (gap 43.7 pp)
Gastroenterology · 12 trusts · England 69.7%
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust: 92.3% — Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust: 50.4% (gap 41.9 pp)
Orthopaedics · 15 trusts · England 60.9%
South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust: 85.6% — The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: 44.3% (gap 41.3 pp)
Gynaecology · 13 trusts · England 59.6%
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust: 78.5% — University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust: 44.9% (gap 33.7 pp)
Ophthalmology · 12 trusts · England 72.2%
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust: 82.1% — University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust: 50.1% (gap 32 pp)
How 18-week performance changed over 12 months
Of the 154 hospital-and-specialty pages for NHS trusts in the West Midlands NHS region with enough comparable published history (14 organisations), these are the 12-month changes in the share of each waiting list waiting under 18 weeks, August 2025 to August 2026:
- 72 of 15418-week performance improved by 3 or more percentage points
- 43 of 15418-week performance broadly stable (change under 3 percentage points)
- 39 of 15418-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 (72 pages, first 5 A–Z)
- Ear, nose and throat (ENT), George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust · 33.9% → 39.8%
- General surgery, George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust · 52.2% → 58.4%
- Gynaecology, George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust · 55.3% → 69.3%
- Ophthalmology, George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust · 52.3% → 76.4%
- Orthopaedics, George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust · 70.5% → 78.8%
67 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, George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust · 75.8% → 77.8%
- Ear, nose and throat (ENT), Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust · 39.3% → 38.6%
- Gastroenterology, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust · 48.2% → 50.4%
- General surgery, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust · 62.8% → 63.9%
- Oral surgery, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust · 44.3% → 47.1%
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 (39 pages, first 5 A–Z)
- Gastroenterology, George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust · 80.7% → 75.6%
- Oral surgery, George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust · 74.9% → 25.9%
- Urology, George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust · 66.3% → 61.5%
- Dermatology, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust · 69.3% → 55.5%
- Respiratory medicine, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust · 88.1% → 81.7%
34 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 Birmingham
A population centre inside the West Midlands
- Hospitals near Coventry
A population centre inside the West Midlands
- Hospitals near Stoke-on-Trent
A population centre inside the West Midlands
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.