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: August 2026.
- Cardiology
362,143 waiting · 68% under 18 weeks
- Dermatology
423,217 waiting · 69% under 18 weeks
- Ear, nose and throat (ENT)
590,233 waiting · 57% under 18 weeks
- Elderly medicine
27,431 waiting · 84% under 18 weeks
- Gastroenterology
358,127 waiting · 70% under 18 weeks
- General medicine
31,589 waiting · 72% under 18 weeks
- General surgery
384,914 waiting · 63% under 18 weeks
- Gynaecology
586,582 waiting · 60% under 18 weeks
- Neurology
208,030 waiting · 62% under 18 weeks
- Neurosurgery
54,748 waiting · 62% under 18 weeks
- Ophthalmology
625,063 waiting · 72% under 18 weeks
- Oral surgery
316,357 waiting · 54% under 18 weeks
- Orthopaedics
851,183 waiting · 61% under 18 weeks
- Plastic surgery
109,605 waiting · 59% under 18 weeks
- Respiratory medicine
182,914 waiting · 74% under 18 weeks
- Rheumatology
118,397 waiting · 70% under 18 weeks
- Urology
367,027 waiting · 65% under 18 weeks
Other ways to browse published waits
- By hospital trust
One page per NHS trust.
- By area
Cities and NHS regions compared.
- Diagnostic tests
Scans and tests, six-week standard.
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.