Waiting times by specialty
Neurosurgery waiting times in England
At the end of August 2026, 54,748 people were on the England neurosurgery waiting list and about 6 in 10 people (62%) had been waiting less than 18 weeks.
NHS England reports this service as Neurosurgical Service. Specialist surgery of the brain, spine and nervous system, provided by a small number of regional centres. It commonly includes spinal surgery, nerve decompression, neuro-oncology surgery.
- People waiting
- 54,748
- End of August 2026
- Under 18 weeks
- 62.0%
- Share of this published list
- Over 52 weeks
- 806
- Share of all NHS waits
- 0.8%
- of 7,189,213 total
806 people (1.5%, roughly 1 in 67) had been waiting more than 52 weeks.
How this has changed
Between July 2025 and August 2026 the share of people on the England neurosurgery list waiting under 18 weeks stayed broadly stable (60% to 62%).
The number of organisations in our imported data changed from 57 to 63 over this period, so the total count partly reflects coverage. The percentage is a more reliable guide to the trend than the headcount.
Share waiting under 18 weeks: broadly unchanged over 3 months (62.0% in May 2026); broadly unchanged over 6 months (60.5% in February 2026); up 2.5 points over 12 months (59.5% in August 2025).
Share seen within 18 weeks, month by month
18-week performance broadly stable · +2.3 pointsPercentage of people seen within 18 weeks, over the last 14 published months.
View these figures as a table
| Month | Within 18 weeks |
|---|---|
| July 2025 | 59.7% |
| August 2025 | 59.5% |
| September 2025 | 61% |
| October 2025 | 61.6% |
| November 2025 | 60.6% |
| December 2025 | 60.5% |
| January 2026 | 60.4% |
| February 2026 | 60.5% |
| March 2026 | 62.2% |
| April 2026 | 62.3% |
| May 2026 | 62% |
| June 2026 | 62.8% |
| July 2026 | 62.7% |
| August 2026 | 62% |
Changes of less than 3 percentage points in the share waiting under 18 weeks are treated as broadly stable. This describes the whole waiting list, not how long any one person waits.
Month-by-month figures
| Month | Waiting | Under 18 weeks | Over 52 weeks |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 2025 | 57,791 | 59.7% | 1,434 |
| August 2025 | 58,447 | 59.5% | 1,496 |
| September 2025 | 58,489 | 61.0% | 1,464 |
| October 2025 | 58,245 | 61.6% | 1,164 |
| November 2025 | 55,317 | 60.6% | 1,121 |
| December 2025 | 59,391 | 60.5% | 1,117 |
| January 2026 | 58,192 | 60.4% | 1,061 |
| February 2026 | 56,821 | 60.5% | 927 |
| March 2026 | 56,423 | 62.2% | 776 |
| April 2026 | 57,342 | 62.3% | 844 |
| May 2026 | 57,463 | 62.0% | 1,022 |
| June 2026 | 56,667 | 62.8% | 963 |
| July 2026 | 54,161 | 62.7% | 842 |
| August 2026 | 54,748 | 62.0% | 806 |
How much hospitals differ
Across the 22 NHS trusts with data, the share waiting under 18 weeks ranges from 50% (Barts Health NHS Trust) to 77% (Bristol NHS Foundation Trust) — a 27-point gap. These published figures do not predict when an individual patient will receive an appointment or treatment.
- 80% or more under 18 weeks0 trusts
- 65% to 79%9 trusts
- 50% to 64%12 trusts
- Under 50%1 trusts
A further 5 NHS-funded independent-sector and other providers reported 3,469 people waiting for this service. Their case mix can differ from an NHS trust's, so they are counted here but not ranked alongside trusts.
NHS trusts by published position
Trusts with at least 200 people on this list, most recent month, sorted by share waiting under 18 weeks. Small differences are not meaningful.
Neurosurgery waits at individual hospitals
12 NHS organisations have a page for this service, grouped by region. Each page shows that organisation's published figures for neurosurgery alongside the England position.
East Midlands (1)
London (6)
North West (2)
West Midlands (2)
Yorkshire and The Humber (1)
How 18-week performance changed over 12 months
There are too few hospital-and-specialty pages for neurosurgery with comparable history to summarise. The pages below each show their own published history, August 2025 to August 2026.
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 (6 pages, first 5 A–Z)
- Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust · 58.1% → 67.9%
- Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust · 41.4% → 55.9%
- King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust · 55.3% → 65.4%
- Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 54.4% → 62.4%
- St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 47.7% → 58.7%
1 more in this group. Every hospital page is listed in the hospital trust directory.
18-week performance broadly stable (change under 3 percentage points) (3 pages, A–Z)
- Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust · 62.2% → 59.9%
- University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust · 55% → 55.7%
- University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust · 53.8% → 53.7%
18-week performance deteriorated by 3 or more percentage points (3 pages, A–Z)
- Barts Health NHS Trust · 60.9% → 49.7%
- Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust · 58.7% → 51.7%
- Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust · 79.5% → 74.7%
NHS waiting trends across England explains the method and covers every specialty and area.
What this measure includes
- These figures cover consultant-led referral-to-treatment pathways where the patient was still waiting to start treatment at the end of the reporting month.
- People can be at different stages of an incomplete referral-to-treatment pathway. The figures do not show the stage of an individual patient's pathway.
- These published aggregate figures do not show the clinical priority of an individual referral.
Checking your own position
Published figures describe a whole list for one month. To work out how long you have been waiting, use the wait check. The team named on your appointment letter is the only source for your actual place on a list.
How to read a specialty figure
These are end-of-month counts of people on an incomplete consultant-led referral-to-treatment pathway. One specialty list holds referrals of different clinical priority and people at different stages, and the published figures do not separate them, so this is context rather than a forecast for any individual.
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.