Acute sector

Accident & Emergency (A&E) (data for April 2026)

A&E attendances

• There were 2.35 million A&E attendances this month, which is the busiest April on record and is compared with 2.43 million in March. This value stood at 2.30 million in April 2025. This is shown in Figure 1. 
  
  
• 76.9% of patients were seen within four hours, compared with 77.1% in March. This remains below the 78% aim set for the month in the 2025/26 planning guidance.
  
  
• New, experimental data on performance in type 1 and 2 A&E departments shows that 64.4% of patients were admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours, which is notably lower than the overall four-hour performance. 

Figure 1

A&E emergency admissions 

• There were 525,660 emergency admissions in total, compared with 528,230 in April 2025. 

12-hour waits in A&E from decision to admit to admission

• 47,750 patients waited at least 12 hours from the decision to admit to admission, compared with 44,648 in April 2025.

12 hours in an emergency department (ED) from arrival

• 136,704 patients waited more than 12 hours from arrival at a type 1 & 2 A&E in April, compared with 144,084 in April 2025.  
  
  
• Waits of over 12 hours in A&E occurred 9.3% of the time, meeting the 10% aim outlined in the UEC delivery plan published in June.  

Acute discharge delays (data for April 2026) 

• On average, 60.3% of patients who no longer met the criteria to reside remained in hospital per day, compared with 57.2% for April 2025.  

Cancer (data for March 2026)

• 79.4% of patients were told they have cancer, or cancer was definitively excluded within 28 days of urgent referral (FDS) compared with 79.0% in March 2025. This is close to the target set out in the 2025/26 planning guidance for this figure to be 80% by this month. 
  
  
• 92.8% of patients waited less than a month from a decision to treat to first treatment (31-day target) compared with 91.5% in March 2025. The operational standard is for this to be 96%.  
  
  
• 72.8% of patients waited less than two months from an urgent suspected cancer referral to a first definitive treatment (62-day target), compared with 71.4% in March 2025. The March 2026 aims set out in the 2025/26 planning guidance is for this figure to be 75%.  

Diagnostics (data for March 2026)

• 2.62 million diagnostic tests and procedures were carried out this month, compared with 2.51 million in March 2025. This is the highest figure for March since records began in January 2006. 
  
  
• The waiting list reached 1.92 million, the highest figure since records began in January 2006. The waiting list was 1.70 million in March 2025, and 1.07 million in March 2019, indicating sustained strain on diagnostic services since the pandemic. 
  
  
• 21.2% of patients have been on an NHS waiting list for diagnostic tests for 6 weeks or more at the end of March, compared with 18.4% in March 2025.  

Elective waiting list (data for March 2026)

• The size of the waiting list decreased to 7.11 million in March, compared with 7.22 million in February. This is notably lower than the 7.42 million in March 2025, but the list remains significantly higher than before the pandemic (4.35 million in March 2019). The progress seen on reducing the elective waiting list since January 2024 is shown in Figure 2. 
  
  
• The waiting list is at its lowest for over three years. 
  
  
• 84.7% of patients on the waiting list were unique patients. This is an estimated 6.02 million people. 
  
  
• The number of cases waiting more than 18 weeks was 2.47 million, compared with 2.98 in March 2025.  
  
  
• Waits within 18 weeks were equivalent to 65.3% of the total, compared with 59.8% in March 2025. This therefore means that the planning guidance aim for 65% of treatments to be waiting no longer than 18 weeks by March 2026 was met this month. The progress seen on improving the proportion of patients waiting more than 18 weeks is shown in Figure 2.  
  
  
• Waits of over 52 weeks (94,406) have fallen from 180,243 in March 2025 and now account for 1.3% of all waits. The planning guidance sets out an aim for waits over a year to account for 1% of all waits by this month, which was not met. However, this is the first time that this figure has been under 100,000 since July 2020. 
  
  
• 1.71 million cases were managed on the waiting list this month, which is the highest figure on record (since August 2007). 
  
  
• Demand for elective care, measured by new cases added to the list (1.95 million cases) continued to outpace activity. This is the highest figure for a single month since records began (in October 2015).

Figure 2