The NHS waiting-time picture, and where to verify it
Real figures from NHS RTT and DM01 data. Every number here links to the trust, hospital or test page beneath it, so you can check it yourself.
Why do published NHS waiting times disagree so much? →
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The NHS standard is that fewer than 1% of a test's queue should wait more than six weeks. Almost no trust meets it: for audiology and echocardiography, about 85% of trusts breach the standard.
Source: NHS DM01, August 2026. Total across the 13 tests below.
Every NHS diagnostic test, ranked: how long the queue is, how widely the six-week standard is missed, and how deep the wait runs. Each row links to the queue at every hospital.
Trusts breaching is a share of trusts, past 6wk a share of the whole queue, and 13wk+ a share of those already past six weeks, so it shows how much of the breach is a long one.
| Test | Waiting | Trusts breaching ↓ | Past 6wk | 13wk+ of those breaching |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hearing test → | 121,334 | 85% (135/158) | 43% (51,630) | 53% (27,170) |
| Urodynamics test → | 9,732 | 85% (104/122) | 46% (4,504) | 52% (2,348) |
| Echocardiogram → | 154,941 | 83% (130/157) | 30% (46,805) | 34% (15,811) |
| Colonoscopy → | 76,686 | 81% (176/218) | 31% (23,693) | 44% (10,419) |
| Cystoscopy → | 24,198 | 80% (143/179) | 27% (6,610) | 47% (3,093) |
| Gastroscopy → | 73,297 | 78% (169/218) | 30% (21,920) | 44% (9,591) |
| Nerve conduction test → | 40,572 | 77% (96/124) | 45% (18,248) | 48% (8,741) |
| Sleep study → | 42,159 | 77% (87/113) | 35% (14,917) | 36% (5,427) |
| Flexible sigmoidoscopy → | 23,459 | 75% (159/211) | 33% (7,780) | 39% (3,056) |
| Ultrasound scan → | 648,630 | 72% (215/300) | 22% (140,474) | 22% (30,620) |
| MRI scan → | 357,356 | 67% (189/281) | 22% (78,471) | 21% (16,345) |
| Bone density scan → | 68,187 | 62% (88/142) | 21% (14,296) | 24% (3,377) |
| CT scan → | 181,619 | 62% (146/237) | 11% (20,374) | 23% (4,683) |
What's changing
We hold three monthly snapshots. This is the movement we can show honestly.
The diagnostic backlog is holding, not clearing: it dipped in the middle month and edged back up.
We hold national orthopaedic and ENT figures for two months, so that is one month of movement, shown below as figures rather than a trend line. We don't show a longer treatment-wait trend yet: we hold one month of national change. And we can't yet show which trusts have started or stopped reporting: that needs a second coverage snapshot, due with the next data release.
Treatment waits: orthopaedics and ENT
Orthopaedics
692,198 people waiting. The typical wait in England is a median of 27 weeks, with 1 in 5 waiting over 49 weeks; across trusts that runs from 13 to 104 weeks. People still in the queue across England have already waited a median of 14 weeks and counting. Their final wait will be longer, because they have not been treated yet.
Source: NHS RTT, August 2026. Waiting count is the incomplete-pathway list. The CSV carries both bases, every trust, with source and month.
ENT
555,641 people waiting. The typical wait in England is a median of 25 weeks, with 1 in 5 waiting over 50 weeks; across trusts that runs from 10 to 77 weeks. People still in the queue across England have already waited a median of 16 weeks and counting. Their final wait will be longer, because they have not been treated yet.
Source: NHS RTT, August 2026. Waiting count is the incomplete-pathway list. The CSV carries both bases, every trust, with source and month.
Findings
Two trusts report no treatment-wait data at all
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust reports no RTT waiting times to NHS England, though it still reports a diagnostic queue of 28,746. Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust reports no RTT waiting times to NHS England, though it still reports a diagnostic queue of 6,819.
Source: NHS RTT, August 2026 (absent from every treatment function). DM01 queue, August 2026.
The worst single queues
The provider where the largest share of the queue has waited over six weeks, per test. We show the worst provider overall: the true fact, and, where that is an independent or community centre with no page here, the worst NHS trust alongside, with its link.
- Urodynamics test (bladder pressure test): worst is South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust at 97% · see it →
- Nerve conduction test (peripheral neurophysiology): worst is University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust at 88% · see it →
- Hearing test (audiology): worst is Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust at 96% (an independent or community centre: no page here). Worst NHS trust: The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn, NHS Foundation Trust at 90% · see it →
- Sleep study: worst is Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust at 98% · see it →
- Flexible sigmoidoscopy (bowel camera test): worst is Kingston and Richmond NHS Foundation Trust at 69% · see it →
- Colonoscopy (bowel camera test): worst is Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust at 78% · see it →
Source: NHS DM01, August 2026. Providers with at least 50 people waiting.
What's not here, and why
We publish figures we can link to and stand behind. Twenty-one other NHS specialties report waits we hold but have no page to send you to yet: we leave them off rather than show a dead end. A few trusts with very small caseloads give numbers too thin to rank fairly; those are held back too. Every figure on this page links to the source page beneath it.
How long will you really wait, and how could you go sooner?
Your free companion dashboard compares all four paths for your treatment: wait, switch to a faster NHS hospital, part-private, or fully private. It names the faster hospitals near you, shows what going private would cost, and gives you letters ready to send. You can print it or save it as a PDF. Free, and nothing is locked or paid.
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