NHS Activity Tracker: January 2026

Acute sector

There were 2.33 million A&E attendances this month, compared with 2.35 million in November. This value stood at 2.35 million in December 2024. This is shown in Figure 1.
73.8% of patients were seen within four hours, compared with 74.2% in November. Performance was above December 2024 (71.1%) but below the 78% aim set for March 2026 in the 2025/26 planning guidance.
New, experimental data on performance in type 1 and 2 A&E departments shows that 60.3% of patients were admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours, which is notably lower than the overall four-hour performance.

Figure 1
Total A&E attendances

There were 542,195 emergency admissions, which is down on 5532,592 in December 2024.

50,775 patients waited at least 12 hours from the decision to admit to admission, compared with 54,207 in December 2024, a reduction of 6.3%.

151,724 patients waited more than 12 hours from arrival at a type 1 & 2 A&E in December, which is fewer than the 181,783 in December 2024.
Waits of over 12 hours in A&E occurred 10.5% of the time, falling short of the 10% aim outlined in the UEC delivery plan published in June.

On average, 58.1% of patients who no longer met the criteria to reside remained in hospital, compared with 56.4% for December 2024. This increase signals ongoing strain on patient flow, posing a significant challenge for trust leaders with winter already underway.

76.5% of patients were told they have cancer, or cancer was definitively excluded within 28 days of urgent referral (FDS) compared with 77.3% in November 2024. The March 2026 aims set out in the 2025/26 planning guidance is for this figure to be 80%.
91.7% of patients waited less than a month from a decision to treat to first treatment (31-day target) compared with 91.0% in November 2024. The operational standard is for this to be 96%.
70.2% of patients waited less than two months from an urgent suspected cancer referral to a first definitive treatment (62-day target), compared with 69.8% in November 2024. The March 2026 aims set out in the 2025/26 planning guidance is for this figure to be 75%.

2.45 million diagnostic tests were carried out this month, compared with 2.62 million in October.
The waiting list reached 1.76 million, up by 145,182 since last November. It is now 66% higher than in November 2019, indicating sustained strain on diagnostic services since the pandemic.
78.3% of patients were seen within six weeks for diagnostic tests, compared with 78.7% in October 2025. The constitutional standard for this metric is 99%.

The size of the waiting list decreased by more than 86,500 to 7.31 million in November, compared with 7.40 million in October. This is far lower than the 7.48 million in November 2024, but the list remains significantly higher than before the pandemic (4.56 million in November 2019). This is shown in Figure 2.
The drop of 86,517 pathways equates to a decrease of 1.2% from October.
84.4% of patients on the waiting list were unique patients. This is an estimated 6.17 million people.
The number of cases waiting more than 18 weeks was 2.79 million, compared with 3.06 in November 2024.
Waits within 18 weeks were equivalent to 61.8% of all the total, compared with 59.2% in November 2024. Further progress is needed to meet the planning guidance aim for 65% of treatments to be waiting no longer than 18 weeks by March 2026.
Waits of over 52 weeks (156,483) have fallen from 172,556 in October 2025 and now account for 2.1% of all waits. The planning guidance sets out an aim for waits over a year to account for 1% of all waits by March 2026.
1.54 million cases were managed on the waiting list this month.
Demand for elective care, measured by new cases added to the list (1.71 million cases) continued to outpace activity.

Figure 2
Total size of elective waiting list