The NHS waiting list for hospital treatment has fallen to its lowest level since early 2023, according to new figures from NHS England. An estimated 7.31 million planned treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of November 2025, relating to 6.17 million patients. This is down from 7.4 million treatments and 6.24 million patients at the end of October.
The waiting list is at its lowest level since February 2023, when the figure was 7.22 million. It hit a record high in September 2023 under the Conservative government, with 7.77 million treatments and 6.50 million patients. Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: 'For too long, patients were promised change in the NHS but saw little of it. This Government is turning promises into change people can actually feel.'
However, experts have urged caution. Sarah Scobie, deputy director of research at the Nuffield Trust, said it was encouraging to see such a big drop but noted that a large proportion of the reduction may be due to data cleaning exercises rather than increased activity. She added that the March deadline for the objective of getting 65% of patients treated within 18 weeks of referral is closing in, with 62% seen within this timeframe in November.
In November, the number of patients removed from the waiting list for reasons other than extra appointments being delivered increased to about 346,300, compared with about 264,000 in the previous month. It is unclear why these patients were removed, though one possible reason is that treatment journeys were completed but not recorded as such at the time.
Separate data shows that 1,500 patients in England were waiting more than 18 months to start routine hospital treatment at the end of November 2025, down from 1,716 in October. However, A&E waits remain high, with 50,775 patients waiting more than 12 hours from a decision to admit to actually being admitted in December 2025, up slightly from November. NHS England said the health service had experienced its busiest ever year, with 27.8 million A&E attendances in 2025.
