The NHS in England is expected to miss several key performance targets by the end of the financial year on Tuesday, according to a Guardian analysis of the latest data. The health service will fail to meet milestones for A&E waiting times, cancer care, and planned hospital treatment, leaving millions of patients facing prolonged delays.
The findings cast doubt on pledges made last week by Health Secretary Wes Streeting to restore waiting times by 2029. Despite an extra £120m provided to hospitals for an 'elective sprint' of additional appointments and operations, only 61.5% of patients received non-urgent hospital care within 18 weeks in January, far below the 65% target for 2025-26. Only 52 of 150 trusts achieved this target, and 117 trusts failed to improve by five percentage points from a November 2024 baseline.
The A&E target of treating 78% of patients within four hours by March 31 is also set to be missed, with February performance at 74.1%. Ambulance response times for category two calls, including strokes and heart attacks, averaged 30 minutes and 25 seconds in January, just above the 30-minute target. Six of 11 ambulance trusts met the goal.
Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Helen Morgan said: 'These missed targets have very real human consequence. Patients will now be forced to face long delays for care they desperately need due to an NHS that isn’t up to scratch.' Tim Gardner of the Health Foundation noted that 'meeting the government’s pledges to reduce waiting times will require a herculean effort,' adding that projections suggest Labour will not deliver its 92% elective care target by 2029.
On a positive note, patient satisfaction with GP appointments is improving, meeting another key target for the year. However, the overall picture remains bleak, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer's commitment to 'get the NHS back on its feet' under scrutiny.
