What the latest NHS hospital figures for England show

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

Here the PA news agency looks at the key figures from both reports:

– Overall waiting list

The number of routine hospital treatments waiting to be carried out has fallen for the fifth month in a row, standing at 7.43 million treatments at the end of January, down from 7.46 million at the end of December.

This is the lowest figure since April 2023.

Some 6.25 million patients were estimated to be waiting for treatments at the end of January, up slightly from 6.24 million at the end of December.

A patient can be waiting for more than one treatment.

The waiting 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.

– Long waits for treatment

Some 2,005 patients had been waiting more than 18 months to start routine treatment at the end of January, down slightly from 2,059 in December.

There were 14,975 patients who had been waiting more than 65 weeks to start treatment, down from 15,568 the previous month.

A total of 198,868 people had been waiting more than 52 weeks to begin treatment at the end of January, down from 200,375 at the end of December and the lowest number since November 2020.

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

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

– Accident and emergency waits

The number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E departments, from a decision to admit to actually being admitted, stood at 47,623 in February, down from a record 61,529 in January.

The number waiting at least four hours from the decision to admit to admission also fell, standing at 131,237 in February, down from 159,582 in January.

Some 73.4% of patients in England were seen within four hours in A&Es last month, up from 73.0% in January.

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

– Cancer referrals

A total of 73.4% of patients urgently referred for suspected cancer were diagnosed or had cancer ruled out within 28 days in January.

This is down from 78.1% the previous month and is the lowest since April 2024.

It is also below the current target of 75%.

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 January from an urgent suspected cancer referral, or consultant upgrade, to their first definitive treatment for cancer was 67.3%, down from 71.3%.

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

GPs in England made 255,162 urgent cancer referrals in January, up from 235,157 in December and up year on year from 250,119 in January 2024.

– Ambulance response times

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

This is down from eight minutes and 16 seconds in January but is above the target standard response time of seven minutes.

Ambulances took an average of 31 minutes and 22 seconds last month to respond to emergency calls such as heart attacks, strokes and sepsis.

This is down from 35 minutes and 40 seconds in January.

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, 50 minutes and 52 seconds in February, down from one hour, 55 minutes and 25 seconds in January.

– Norovirus

An average of 1,063 hospital beds were filled each day last week by patients with diarrhoea and vomiting or norovirus-like symptoms.

This is down slightly (by 3%) from 1,094 the previous week and is the third weekly fall in a row.

Norovirus levels continue to remain higher than at this point 12 months ago, when an average of 683 beds were filled with patients with symptoms, and also two years ago (844 patients).

– Delayed discharges

An average of 13,740 hospital beds per day were filled last week with patients who were fit to be discharged.

This is up from 13,430 the previous week, but is below the winter peak of 14,087 in early February.

On average, 42% of patients ready to leave hospital last week were actually discharged each day.

– Ambulance handovers

A total of 27.6% 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 31.4% in the previous week.

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

Some 8.9% of handovers last week were delayed by more than an hour, down week on week from 11.6% and well below the peak of 21.3% in early January.

– Flu

Flu levels in hospitals are continuing to fall.

An average of 1,308 flu patients were in beds each day last week, including 61 in critical care.

This is down 15% from 1,546 the previous week, when 74 were in critical care.

The total is slightly higher than at this point last year (1,258) and much higher than this stage two years ago (386).

– Diagnostic tests

More than 360,000 people had been waiting longer than six weeks for a key diagnostic test in January.

Some 363,612 patients, 22.4% 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 355,898 (22.8% of the total) in December but lower than the equivalent figure for January 2024, which was 414,889 (26.3%).