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.
1,919,170 people are waiting for an NHS diagnostic test
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, June 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 → | 124,719 | 87% (136/156) | 41% (51,431) | 55% (28,255) |
| Urodynamics test → | 10,192 | 86% (105/122) | 45% (4,593) | 54% (2,460) |
| Echocardiogram → | 164,213 | 84% (130/155) | 28% (45,555) | 34% (15,285) |
| Nerve conduction test → | 42,022 | 79% (101/128) | 42% (17,765) | 52% (9,224) |
| Cystoscopy → | 25,685 | 77% (137/179) | 26% (6,801) | 46% (3,143) |
| Colonoscopy → | 79,140 | 73% (158/217) | 32% (25,349) | 47% (11,982) |
| Sleep study → | 43,279 | 72% (82/114) | 31% (13,395) | 38% (5,135) |
| Gastroscopy → | 76,509 | 70% (152/216) | 30% (22,920) | 47% (10,706) |
| MRI scan → | 396,182 | 70% (196/279) | 22% (88,233) | 24% (21,339) |
| Flexible sigmoidoscopy → | 24,076 | 68% (142/210) | 32% (7,823) | 42% (3,301) |
| Ultrasound scan → | 662,250 | 66% (201/305) | 20% (132,098) | 26% (33,872) |
| CT scan → | 202,521 | 58% (138/239) | 10% (19,979) | 25% (5,023) |
| Bone density scan → | 68,382 | 58% (84/146) | 16% (11,266) | 22% (2,491) |
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
688,454 people waiting. National median 28 weeks, and 1 in 5 wait over 50 weeks. Across trusts the wait runs from 14 to 103 weeks.
Every trust ranked →Source: NHS RTT, June 2026. Waiting count is the incomplete-pathway list.
ENT
563,698 people waiting. National median 25 weeks, and 1 in 5 wait over 52 weeks. Across trusts the wait runs from 9 to 71 weeks.
Every trust ranked →Source: NHS RTT, June 2026. Waiting count is the incomplete-pathway list.
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 31,487. Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust reports no RTT waiting times to NHS England — though it still reports a diagnostic queue of 6,955.
Source: NHS RTT, June 2026 (absent from every treatment function). DM01 queue, June 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 93% · see it →
- Nerve conduction test (peripheral neurophysiology): worst is County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust at 100% · see it →
- Hearing test (audiology): worst is The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn, NHS Foundation Trust at 93% · see it →
- Flexible sigmoidoscopy (bowel camera test): worst is Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust at 76% · see it →
- Colonoscopy (bowel camera test): worst is Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust at 80% · see it →
- Sleep study: worst is North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust at 81% · see it →
Source: NHS DM01, June 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.