Current NHS Performance (2025)

Current NHS Performance (2025)

This current performance data mainly from the House of Commons library (May 2025).

1. 18 week elective (planned care) target – includes operations and procedures

18 week target = 92% of patients should have definitive treatment within 18 weeks of referral from GP to hospital (e.g. GP to hospital consultant for an operation like a hip replacement).

It is also called te Referral to Treatment (RTT) Target

Currently 58% achieve the 18 week target

In September 2024, the median waiting time for such a treatment was 14.0 weeks, which is almost double the pre-COVID median wait of 7.5 weeks (in July 2019).

In July 2024, the waiting list stood at 7.6 million cases, with nearly a half of these (3.1 million) waiting over 18 weeks, and about 290,000 waiting over a year for treatment.

The 18 week target was last achieved in February 2016.

2. 4 hour A&E target

4 hour target = 95% of patients should be admitted, transferred, or discharged within four hours.

Currently 60% achieve the 4 hour target

This means almost all patients going through ‘majors’ (the sicker patients) will breach the 4 hour target.

In March 2024, the average waiting time was:

• 5 hours and 7 minutes (if you are admitted)
• 2 hours and 37 minutes (if you are not admitted).

The total number of patients waiting over 12 hours was 28,500 in August 2024.

The 4 hour target was last achieved in July 2015.

3. 31/62 day cancer targets

There are 3 cancer targets:

• Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS) = 28-days wait from referral (by your GP) to being given a cancer diagnosis (at least 75%; yes, quite a weak standard)
• 31 day target = 31-days (one month) wait from decision to treat to first treatment (96%)
• 62 day target = 62-days (two months) wait from referral to first treatment (85%)

Currently 92% of patients achieve 31 day target and 68% achieve 62 day target

Average time to treatment data is not collected.

The (previous) two-week target (2WW) was last achieved in December 2015. The FDS took over from it in April 2021. Hence there is no good long-term data yet.