health
NHS to miss targets for cutting A&E wait times and performance in England
Exclusive: Health secretary’s pledges in doubt as analysis shows health service will not deliver key improvements
TL;DR
- The NHS in England is expected to miss key targets for A&E, cancer care, and planned hospital treatments by the end of the fiscal year.
- Despite an additional £120m allocated for an 'elective sprint,' the health service will not deliver promised milestone improvements.
- Only 61.5% of patients received non-urgent care within 18 weeks in January, falling short of the 65% year-end target for 2025-26.
- The target for A&E patients to be treated within four hours is also unlikely to be met, with performance at 74.1% in February against a 78% target.
- Category two ambulance response times, including for strokes and heart attacks, are also off-track, averaging 30 minutes and 25 seconds in January against a 30-minute target.
- Diagnostic waiting lists have reached 1.8 million, the highest since the Covid pandemic, with 139,652 people waiting over 13 weeks.
- The number of people waiting for elective hospital care has fallen slightly since Labour took power, but from a high base and with additional funding and staffing not yet translating into rapid performance improvements.