What the latest NHS hospital figures for England show

NHS England has published its latest monthly performance data for hospitals, along with this week’s snapshot of winter virus levels and A&E pressures.

Here are the key figures from both reports:

The waiting list for routine hospital treatment in England has fallen for the fourth month in a row.

An estimated 7.46 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of December, relating to 6.24 million patients – down from 7.48 million treatments and 6.28 million patients at the end of November.

These are the lowest figures since April 2023.

The list hit a record high in September 2023, with 7.77 million treatments and 6.50 million patients.

The size of the list has been on an upwards trend for much of the last 10 years, passing three million treatments in 2014, four million in 2017, five million in 2021 and seven million in 2022.

In February 2020, the last full month before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the list stood at 4.57 million treatments.

Some 2,059 patients had been waiting more than 18 months to start routine treatment at the end of December, up very slightly from 2,051 in November.

There were 15,568 patients who had been waiting more than 65 weeks to start treatment, down from 16,904 the previous month.

A total of 200,375 people had been waiting more than 52 weeks to begin treatment at the end of December, down from 221,889 at the end of November and the lowest number since November 2020.

This figure had climbed as high as 436,127 in March 2021.

Some 2.7% of people on the waiting list for NHS hospital treatment in December had been waiting more than 52 weeks.

The Government and NHS England have set a target of March 2026 for this figure to be reduced to less than 1%.

A record 61,529 people had to wait more than 12 hours in A&E departments in January from a decision to admit to actually being admitted, up from 54,207 in December.

This surpasses the previous record high for a calendar month, which was 54,573 in December 2022.

The number waiting at least four hours from the decision to admit to admission also rose, although not to a new record, standing at 159,582 in January, up from 154,689 in December.

The record for this measure is 170,121 in December 2022.

Some 73.0% of patients in England were seen within four hours in A&Es last month, up from 71.1% in December.

The Government and NHS England have set a new target of March 2026 for 78% of patients attending A&E to be admitted, discharged or transferred within four hours.

A total of 78.1% of patients urgently referred for suspected cancer were diagnosed or had cancer ruled out within 28 days in December 2024.

This is up from 77.4% the previous month and is above the current target of 75%, as well as being the joint highest percentage since this measure of performance was introduced in April 2021.

The Government and NHS England have set a new target of March 2026 for this figure to reach 80%.

Meanwhile, the proportion of patients who had waited no longer than 62 days in December from an urgent suspected cancer referral, or consultant upgrade, to their first definitive treatment for cancer was 71.3%, up from 69.4%.

This is the highest percentage since this measure was first reported in April 2022.

The Government and NHS England have set a new target of March 2026 for this figure to reach 75%.

GPs in England made 235,157 urgent cancer referrals in December, down from 259,563 in November but up year-on-year from 220,350 in December 2023.

The average response time in January for ambulances dealing with the most urgent incidents, defined as calls from people with life-threatening illnesses or injuries, was eight minutes and 16 seconds.

This is down from eight minutes and 40 seconds in December but is above the target standard response time of seven minutes.

Ambulances took an average of 35 minutes and 40 seconds last month to respond to emergency calls such as heart attacks, strokes and sepsis.

This is down from 47 minutes and 26 seconds in December.

The Government and NHS England have set a new target for this figure to average 30 minutes across 2025/26.

Response times for urgent calls, such as late stages of labour, non-severe burns and diabetes, averaged one hour, 55 minutes and 25 seconds in January, down from three hours and two minutes exactly in December.

An average of 14,087 hospital beds per day were filled last week with patients who were fit to be discharged.

This is up from 13,776 the previous week and is the highest number so far this winter.

On average, 41% of patients ready to leave hospital last week were actually discharged each day.

An average of 948 hospital beds were filled each day last week by patients with diarrhoea and vomiting or norovirus-like symptoms.

This is down slightly (by 1%) from 961 the previous week, which had been the highest so far this season.

Norovirus levels continue to remain higher than at this point 12 months ago, when an average of 565 beds were filled with patients with symptoms, and also two years ago (710 patients).

Flu levels in hospitals have fallen for the fifth week in a row.

An average of 2,039 flu patients were in beds each day last week, including 96 in critical care.

This is down 17% from 2,461 the previous week, when 122 were in critical care.

The total is lower than at this point last winter (2,390) but higher than this stage two years ago (738).

A total of 27.9% of patients arriving by ambulance at hospitals in England last week waited at least 30 minutes to be handed over to A&E teams, down from 32.2% in the previous week.

The figure stood as high as 42.2% at the start of the year.

Some 9.1% of handovers last week were delayed by more than an hour, down week-on-week from 12.5% and well below the peak of 21.3% in early January.

More than 350,000 people had been waiting longer than six weeks for a key diagnostic test in December.

Some 355,898 patients, 22.8% of the total, were waiting longer than six weeks for one of 15 standard tests, including an MRI scan, non-obstetric ultrasound or gastroscopy.

The figure is up from 321,773 (19.9% of the total) in November but lower than the equivalent figure for December 2023, which was 417,137 (26.8%).