What the latest NHS hospital figures for England show

NHS England has published its latest weekly snapshot of winter pressures on hospitals, including patients with flu and ambulance handover delays, along with monthly performance data for waiting times, cancer referrals and other targets.

Here, the Press Association runs through the key numbers and trends in both reports:

The waiting list for routine hospital treatment has fallen to its lowest level since early 2023.

An estimated 7.31 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of November 2025, relating to 6.17 million patients, down from 7.40 million treatments and 6.24 million patients at the end of October.

The number of treatments waiting to be carried out is now at its lowest level since February 2023, when it stood at 7.22 million.

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 upward trend in recent 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.

A total of 156,483 people had been waiting more than a year to start routine hospital treatment at the end of November, down from 172,556 at the end of October.

This is the lowest figure for waits of more than a year since September 2020.

Some 2.2% of people on the list for hospital treatment had been waiting more than 52 weeks in November, down from 2.3% the previous month.

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

An estimated 1,500 patients had been waiting more than 18 months to start routine hospital treatment at the end of November, down from 1,716 in October.

A year earlier, in November 2024, the number stood at 2,054.

There were 9,521 patients who had been waiting more than 65 weeks to start treatment, down from 12,542 the previous month.

This figure stood at 16,834 in November 2024.

The number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E departments from a decision to admit to actually being admitted stood at 50,775 in December, up slightly from 50,648 in November.

The number waiting at least four hours from the decision to admit to admission also rose, standing at 137,763 last month, up from 133,799 in November.

Some 73.8% of patients were seen within four hours in A&Es last month, down from 74.2% in November.

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.

A total of 76.5% of patients urgently referred for suspected cancer were diagnosed or had cancer ruled out within 28 days in November, up from 76.1% in October.

This is above the current target of 75%.

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

There continues to be a large difference between the proportion of patients having cancer ruled out and those having cancer confirmed.

Some 78.0% of those patients ruled out of having cancer were told within 28 days in November.

By contrast, just 55.1% of patients had their cancer confirmed within 28 days.

The proportion of patients who had waited no longer than 62 days in November from an urgent suspected cancer referral, or consultant upgrade, to their first definitive treatment for cancer was 70.2%, up from 68.8% in October.

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

An average of 2,725 flu patients were in hospital in England each day in the week ending January 11, including 107 in critical care.

This is down 7% from 2,924 the previous week, when 108 were in critical care.

The figure had climbed as high as 3,140 in the week ending December 14.

Last winter, weekly flu numbers for England peaked at 5,408 patients.

An average of 567 hospital beds were filled each day last week by patients with norovirus symptoms.

This is up 57% from the previous week’s average of 361 and is the highest figure for norovirus patients so far this winter.

A total of 37% of patients arriving by ambulance at hospitals in England last week waited at least 30 minutes to be handed over to A&E teams.

This is up from 33% the previous week and is the highest figure so far this winter.

Some 15% of ambulance handovers last week, or 13,683 patients, were delayed by more than an hour, up from 12% the previous week and again the highest so far this winter.

The average response time in December for ambulances dealing with the most urgent incidents, defined as calls from people with life-threatening illnesses or injuries, was seven minutes and 59 seconds.

This is down slightly from eight minutes and one second in November, but is above the target standard response time of seven minutes.

Ambulances took an average of 32 minutes and 43 seconds last month to respond to emergency calls such as heart attacks, strokes and sepsis.

This is down very slightly from 32 minutes and 46 seconds in November.

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

The average currently stands at exactly 30 minutes.

Response times for urgent calls, such as late stages of labour, non-severe burns and diabetes, averaged two hours, one minute and 17 seconds in December, slightly faster than two hours, two minutes and 19 seconds in November.