The NHS waiting list
7.03 million people were waiting to start NHS consultant-led treatment in England in the week ending 28 June 2026 — the most recent week published. This is the whole England picture; for a specific hospital or trust, see its own page.
Who is waiting — by age
People on the waiting list by age group (28 June 2026).
Who is waiting — by sex
People on the waiting list by sex (28 June 2026). Percentages are of the 6,683,550 people with a sex recorded.
About this figure
This is the Waiting List Minimum Data Set (WLMDS) — waiting lists NHS providers submit weekly to NHS England, published as a collated weekly series (updated roughly monthly). It is a weekly-granular national view, measured slightly differently from the monthly Referral to Treatment (RTT) figures shown on hospital and trust pages, so the England total here won't exactly match the sum of those — that is expected. Reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Full methodology.