NHS waiting list edges up but fewer patients facing longest waits
14 August 2025
Credit: Getty/skynesherBy Storm Newton, PA Media
The overall waiting list for routine hospital treatment in England has increased, although the number of patients facing the longest waits has fallen, NHS data shows.
The latest performance data from NHS England shows an estimated 7.37 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of June – up from 7.36 million treatments at the end of May.
The slight increase comes after the list fell for two consecutive months.
Health experts said the statistics show that the NHS remains under “relentless pressure”.
However, the proportion of patients facing the longest waits decreased in June.
Some 1,103 patients had been waiting more than 18 months to start routine treatment, down from 1,237 in May, and there were 10,517 patients who had been waiting more than 65 weeks, down from 11,522 the previous month.
This figure stood at 58,024 in June 2024.
Meanwhile, data on A&E wait times shows 76.4% of patients were seen within four hours last month, up from 75.5% in June.
The number waiting at least four hours from the decision to admit to admission fell slightly in July, while those waiting 12 hours fell by just over 3,000 to 35,467.
'NHS under relentless pressure'
Despite this reduction, Dr Nick Murch, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, described the 12-hour wait figure as “unacceptable”.
He said: “Clinicians across the UK are reporting this week as one of the worst they have experienced, with no sign of the brief respite seen in the immediate aftermath of recent strike action, yet there remains no tangible and immediate action to address urgent workforce and capacity issues.”
Tim Gardner, assistant director of policy at the Health Foundation, said: “While summer is often a time for the NHS to catch its breath, today’s data shows hospitals and ambulance services remain under relentless pressure.”
The monthly figures come after health analysts claimed they have spotted a “contradiction” in the data and called for more transparency in the way in which the waiting list is reported.
Experts at the think tank Nuffield Trust suggest that more patients are being referred for treatment than leaving the waiting list, despite the overall waiting list coming down.
Their new report examines so-called “unreported removals”, which occur when someone is taken off the waiting list for a reason other than that person having received their treatment.
Dr Becks Fisher, Nuffield Trust director of research and policy, said: “Our new analysis shows that waiting list reductions in previous months are not wholly due to increases in appointments being delivered.
“But, an average of about 245,000 cases have been coming off the list each month due to reasons other than patients being recorded as getting their treatment.
“Doing this work to improve the accuracy of the waiting list is important, but we should be under no illusions that despite delivering more appointments, the NHS is still not meeting patient demand.”
Elsewhere, some 76.8% of patients urgently referred for suspected cancer were diagnosed or had cancer ruled out within 28 days in June, up from 74.8% in May, but below the 80% target set by the government and NHS England for March 2026.
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