NHS waiting list climbs to nine-month high after the busiest summer on record
An estimated 7.33 million treatments were waiting at the end of July, as A&E departments recorded 7.2 million attendances over the summer and ambulances faced record callouts.
The waiting list for routine hospital treatment in England has risen to its highest level for nine months, with an estimated 7.33 million treatments waiting to be carried out at the end of July, relating to 6.21 million patients.
The figures, published in September as accredited official statistics, show the list up from 7.27 million treatments and 6.15 million patients at the end of June, and the highest since October 2025. The list remains below its record high of 7.77 million treatments in September 2023.
Some 65.4 per cent of patients began treatment within 18 weeks of referral in July, down from 65.8 per cent in June but above the interim target of 65 per cent that the Government and NHS England had set for March. The new target is 70 per cent by March 2027, on the way to the pledge that 92 per cent of patients will begin treatment within 18 weeks by the end of this Parliament in 2029.
The NHS is now facing a twin crisis, with summer joining winter as a major pressure on services.Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of The King’s Fund, September 2026
Long waits grew. An estimated 111,379 people had been waiting more than a year to start routine treatment at the end of July, up from 105,711 at the end of June. The number waiting more than 65 weeks rose from 7,831 to 9,095.
The waiting-list figures came alongside the busiest summer the NHS has recorded. A&E attendances in June, July and August topped a record 7.2 million, 240,000 more than the same period last year, while ambulance services dealt with a record 2.4 million callouts, up more than 130,000 on last year. NHS England said that despite the record demand, staff had treated, admitted or discharged the highest ever number of A&E patients within four hours: 5,462,182.
There were brighter spots. A record 308,200 people were seen in July following an urgent suspected cancer referral, and more than 5 million people had a diagnostic test or check across June and July, the highest number ever over those months.
But pressure on emergency care remains acute. There were 92,177 instances of so-called corridor care in England in August, an average of 2,973 patients a day. Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of The King’s Fund, said the NHS was “now facing a twin crisis, with summer joining winter as a major pressure on services and leaving little room for staff and the system to recover between peak periods”.
Nicola Ranger, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said the summer’s five heatwaves had “supercharged” the corridor-care crisis and demonstrated the “extraordinary pace at which corridor care has become completely normalised in the NHS”. The Government has made £1.5 billion available for building and maintenance work, alongside measures to build resilience to hotter weather.
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