NHS waiting times by specialty
Each specialty page shows the published England picture for one consultant-led service, how it has changed over the last year, and how much hospitals differ.
Latest published month held: June 2026.
- Cardiology
373,459 waiting · 68% under 18 weeks
- Cardiothoracic surgery
9,161 waiting · 73% under 18 weeks
- Dermatology
399,463 waiting · 69% under 18 weeks
- Ear, nose and throat (ENT)
595,473 waiting · 59% under 18 weeks
- Elderly medicine
26,639 waiting · 83% under 18 weeks
- Gastroenterology
362,052 waiting · 69% under 18 weeks
- General medicine
36,576 waiting · 71% under 18 weeks
- General surgery
382,851 waiting · 63% under 18 weeks
- Gynaecology
577,108 waiting · 61% under 18 weeks
- Neurology
209,198 waiting · 62% under 18 weeks
- Neurosurgery
56,667 waiting · 63% under 18 weeks
- Ophthalmology
622,977 waiting · 74% under 18 weeks
- Oral surgery
320,552 waiting · 55% under 18 weeks
- Orthopaedics
837,484 waiting · 61% under 18 weeks
- Plastic surgery
105,372 waiting · 59% under 18 weeks
- Respiratory medicine
189,478 waiting · 75% under 18 weeks
- Rheumatology
118,749 waiting · 71% under 18 weeks
- Urology
373,998 waiting · 65% under 18 weeks
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
- 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.
- What happens if the NHS misses the 18-week target
Background on what happens when the 18-week standard is not met.
- NHS patient choice explained
Background on the legal basis of NHS patient choice.
- How consultant triage works
Explains how clinical triage affects the spread of waits on one list.
Everything on these pages comes from NHS England published statistics. See how we handle the data.