The hospitals where waiting times are getting worse. Is yours one of them?

NHS Backlog: A Quarter of Hospitals See Waiting Times Worsen

According to BBC research, nearly a quarter of hospital trusts in England have seen waiting times increase since the government launched its initiative to tackle the surgery backlog a year ago. A key Labour manifesto pledge for the health service was to meet the 18-week waiting target for elective care, such as hip and knee surgeries. Last January, the government set out a roadmap for hospitals to return to "normalcy."

However, while national progress is being made, 31 hospital trusts have regressed, and a further 17 have made no progress across the 129 services evaluated. The hospitals most affected cite a variety of challenges, including acute staffing shortages, industrial action by physicians, and failing IT infrastructure.

'Living in Pain'

Mary Waterhouse, 72, from Blackpool, is one of many patients experiencing delays at a trust where waiting times are deteriorating. Suffering from severe arthritis, she has been under the care of the Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust since 2022. Initially treated with steroids, her condition worsened, and she was placed back on the waiting list in late 2024.

After an eight-month wait for diagnostic tests, her health had deteriorated so significantly that she was told she required bilateral hip and knee replacements. Faced with such a daunting recovery, she opted against the treatment.

"My arthritis was too advanced, and it was causing too many hospitalisations. I have decided to live with the pain," she said. "Since I was first referred, I have faced long queues at every stage. It is like being in a never-ending line. I now rely on a scooter to get around. Treatment might have been more effective if I had received faster care."

Deborah Alsina, of the charity Versus Arthritis, said Mary’s case was typical of the difficulties faced by thousands. She emphasised that while timely care is "life-changing," there is currently no "equitable access" to healthcare in England. Blackpool Teaching Hospitals said it could not comment on Mary’s case, but Chief Executive Maggie Oldham admitted that waits were too long. "We know we are not where we should be, but we are working urgently with our partners to solve these problems," she said.

National Targets vs Local Reality

The government has made reducing waiting times its top priority for the NHS, promising to meet the 18-week target—which stipulates that 92% of patients should be seen within that timeframe—by March 2029. This target has not been met nationally since 2015.

For March 2026, an interim national target of 65% has been set. When the government announced its plan in January last year, only 59% of patients were waiting less than 18 weeks; that figure has since risen slightly to 61.8%. Furthermore, the total waiting list has decreased to 7.31 million, the lowest level since February 2023.

A 'Postcode Lottery' of Care

The 18-week promise is limited to England, though other parts of the UK face similar challenges. Experts warn that the NHS is not a homogenous body but a collection of separate organisations, each with unique financial and operational burdens.

Chris McCann, Deputy Chief Executive of the patient watchdog Healthwatch England, noted that the findings highlight a "postcode lottery" for patients. "Those in charge of monitoring NHS trusts must pay close attention to those that are not only failing but actually deteriorating," he said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care insisted the government has put the NHS on the "road to recovery" but acknowledged there was "still more to do." She highlighted investments in new surgical hubs and increased evening and weekend scanning. She added that individual hospitals would be held accountable for their performance.