About this tool

This tool takes you to the official waiting-time figures for your own hospital and specialty, and explains what those figures actually measure. We do not publish a waiting time of our own, and we never estimate one.

You choose the part of the UK you live in and the type of treatment you are waiting for. The tool sends you to the official source for that nation, whether that is NHS England, Public Health Scotland, the Welsh Government or the Northern Ireland Department of Health. It also shows the national figures we have recorded, each with its publication date and source. Alongside them, it explains in plain English what referral-to-treatment measures count, what they leave out, and which questions to ask your hospital about your own place on the list.

Where and what

Which nation are you treated in?

EnglandScotlandWalesNorthern Ireland

Specialty

Your hospital, trust, health board or town

Optional. We use it to build a search into the official service — it is not sent to us.

Trauma and orthopaedics (hips, knees, backs) in England

The figures for your own hospital are published by NHS England in My Planned Care. Each trust publishes its own average waits by specialty, updated monthly.

Open My Planned Care (NHS England)

We do not hold local waiting times and we do not estimate them. The link takes you to the body that publishes them.

National figures we have recorded

No national figure for England has been recorded yet. We show a figure only once it has been taken from a named official publication with its publication date. See key figures.

What the published measures actually mean

These are the five things people most often misread in a waiting-times figure.

The clock starts at referral, not at the appointment: A referral-to-treatment wait runs from the day your referral is received to the day treatment starts. Appointments and scans along the way happen inside that clock, not before it.
An average is not your wait: Published figures are usually a median or a percentage seen within a target. Half of patients wait longer than the median, and a specialty with a short average can still have long individual waits.
The 18-week standard is a target, not a promise: The standard is that a set share of patients start treatment within 18 weeks. It has not been met nationally for some years, so check your own trust rather than the national figure.
Urgent and cancer pathways are counted separately: Suspected cancer referrals run on their own faster timetable and are reported separately from routine planned care.
You may be able to choose a different hospital: In England patients generally have a legal right to choose where they are treated at the point of referral, including providers with shorter waits.

What this does not tell you

We publish no waiting time of our own for any hospital. Local figures come from the official service, not from us.
Published figures describe what happened in a past period. They are not a prediction of your wait.
A figure for a specialty covers every procedure within it, and yours may be faster or much slower.
Nothing here says whether private treatment is right for you medically. Ask your GP or consultant.
What you type is used only to build a link in your own browser. It is not sent to us.

Guides that explain this

This tool gives information, not advice, and nothing here is a recommendation to buy. We provide information. We do not give personal advice, and we do not arrange insurance on this site. Quotes and policies are handled by PremierPMI, an FCA-authorised broker. Read how we are funded and our editorial policy.