Majority of NHS trusts have missed waiting time targets every single month for the past five years

Over the last five years, two thirds of NHS trusts have consistently failed to meet their target of treating patients within 18 weeks of a referral, according to a new data analysis.

The analysis of figures from the House of Commons Library reveals that 114 trusts have failed to meet the target since 2019, and 22 of these trusts have not met the target since 2015. Meanwhile, one third of trusts have failed to meet the NHS diagnostic target over the same period.

A&E waiting time targets are also consistently being missed and only 10 trusts have seen patients within four hours of arrival in any one month since 2019.

The University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trusts was the worst performer and has not met the four-hour standard since November 2013, but other trusts have also failed to hit the target for more than 10 years.

In fact, some trusts have not met any of the three waiting time targets in almost a decade. University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust has missed all the targets every month since 2015, while Hull University teaching Hospitals Trust and Worcester Acute Hospitals Trust have missed them all since 2016.

NHS trusts must be able to deliver on waiting time targets

The government says they are holding trusts with the longest waits “to account”, but the Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting says the fact that so many trusts are missing these vital targets is evidence enough that people “can no longer trust the NHS to be there for them when they need it.”

Streeting says a Labour government would “get the NHS back on its feet” by increasing the number of appointment times and investing in health technology. This includes:

• Delivering two million more operations and appointments at evening and weekends each year
• Doubling the number of NHS scanners, buying new AI-enabled scanners to diagnose faster and more accurately
• Reforming the NHS so it provides more care in the community and stops people needing to go to hospital
• Delivering the NHS workforce plan, training thousands more doctors and nurses a year.

In doing so, Streeting says Labour will get the NHS back to ‘safe waiting times’ within the first term of government, as well as meeting all the targets set out in the NHS constitution. This will be paid for by tightening up rules on tax avoidance and closing loopholes for non-doms.

NHS leaders calling on next government to commit to a ‘stabilisation plan’

Rory Deighton, director of the NHS Confederation’s Acute Network, said Labour’s data analysis is “yet more evidence of impact of a decade of underinvestment in capital, estate, workforce and social care.”

“Our members know that there is no simple solution to these challenges and improving performance is going to be a marathon not a sprint. That is why we welcome the ambition of NHS England’s urgent and emergency care recovery plan to get A&E performance up to 78% and improve ambulance category two response times to 30 minutes this year.

“We also know hospitals have worked incredibly hard to treat the patients who have been waiting the longest and expect tackling waiting lists to continue to be a priority for NHS leaders and their teams going forward,” he said.

For this reason, Mr Deighton says they are calling on the next government to commit to a short-term stabilisation plan during its first 12 months to help get performance ‘back on track’.

“Our members would also like to see capital funding boosted by an extra £6.4 billion a year so they can start to address the repairs backlog and invest in new technology and equipment,” he said.