Drop in waiting list welcome but NHS still under immense pressure

• The total waiting list for procedures and appointments stood at 7.31 million in November, down 1.2% from 7.40 million in October.
• There were 2,725 patients in hospital with flu on average each day last week, down 7% on the 2,924 reported week before.
• There were an average of 640 adult beds closed due to patients in hospital with Norovirus last week, up from 432 the week before.
• On average, there were 4,111 beds closed or occupied due to Covid-19, flu, norovirus and paediatric RSV last week. This is up from 4,079 the previous week but much lower than the 6,852 reported last year.
• On average there were 53,955 members of staff absent per day last week, up from 51,948 the previous week.
• Some 13,445 beds on average each day were filled with patients no longer meeting the criteria to reside in hospital last week, up from 12,688.
• Some 73.8% of patients were admitted, transferred or discharged from A&E departments within four hours in December, down slightly on the 74.2% in November.
• There were 2.33 million attendances at A&Es across England in December, the second busiest December on record, and 542,195 emergency admissions.
• Category 2 ambulance average response time for December was 32 minutes and 43 seconds, much better than in December 2024 when it was 47 minutes and 26 seconds.
• For Category 1 ambulances, the average response time was 7 minutes and 59 seconds in December.
• There were 846,263 ambulance incidents in December, the busiest month on record.

Responding to the latest NHS performance statistics and urgent and emergency care situation reports, Rory Deighton, acute and community care director at the NHS Confederation, said:

“The significant drop in waiting lists is very welcome and testament to the planning and hard work of NHS leaders and their teams. This progress is important to patients – particularly those who have waited the longest for treatment.

“But the data also shows that the NHS continues to be incredibly busy – with services seeing significant numbers of patients in December and record demand across all of last year. Hospitals are under severe strain due to the combination of high levels of flu and other seasonal viruses, unsafe bed occupancy levels at around 94%, rising numbers of delayed discharges and more staff off sick. This is leading to more trusts declaring critical incidents, and health leaders are worried more hospitals may follow suit as we get deeper into the winter months. Despite these pressures, NHS leaders and frontline staff are working incredibly hard to see as many patients as possible while providing high quality services. 

“However, health leaders are under no illusions that there is a still a long way to go to hit the NHS’ key performance targets, and that this will require sustained focus, realistic planning and continued support, especially in the context of workforce pressures, constrained finances and the potential for yet more industrial action.”