NHS England launches interactive dashboard for referral waiting times

NHS England has launched an interactive dashboard designed to provide a new digital interface for the public to monitor consultant-led Referral to Treatment (RTT) statistics. Released on 20 November 2025, the tool offers an alternative way to view performance data that has been tracked since March 2007. The dashboard is updated immediately following the publication of each month’s performance figures, a move intended to enhance transparency as the health service works to manage elective care backlogs.

The RTT statistics are essential for monitoring access to care and measuring performance against the constitutional target of treating patients within 18 weeks of referral. According to the Office for Statistics Regulation, these figures are critical for informing national policy and service improvement. While the new dashboard is considered a positive step in improving accessibility, an official review has highlighted that further development is required before the tools can be relied upon as a primary source for supporting high-level decision-making or trend analysis.

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Recent Performance and Targets

The scale of the elective care waiting list serves as a primary metric for evaluating the current state of the health service. The waiting list reached 7.75 million in August 2023, before experiencing a slow decline to 7.12 million by February 2026. NHS England has established interim goals to manage these numbers, aiming for 65% of patients to meet the 18-week standard by March 2026, with a target of 70% by March 2027. Despite these objectives, performance remains below the 92% constitutional standard the government has pledged to restore by March 2029.

Performance variations exist across clinical specialties. Data from January 2026 indicates that no specialty reached the 92% threshold for patients seen within the 18-week timeframe. Services including plastic surgery, oral surgery, and ear, nose and throat reported the lowest proportions of patients meeting this standard, whereas mental health and elderly medicine services recorded higher levels of performance.

Data Transparency and Reporting Challenges

The introduction of the dashboard arrives amid ongoing debate regarding the accuracy and scope of NHS data. The Office for Statistics Regulation has called for greater clarity concerning "unreported removals"—instances where patients have completed their treatment pathways but are not reflected in the published figures. While NHS England performs internal quality assurance on the data it receives, the current public-facing information does not provide sufficient detail for users to understand the scale of these omissions. The regulator has requested that NHS England publish further information on this issue by April 2026 and provide a public update on its progress toward improving data transparency by August 2026.

Further concerns have been raised regarding the reporting of "corridor care," defined as a patient spending at least 45 minutes in a clinically inappropriate area of an emergency department or ward. NHS England began publishing data on this in May 2026, recording an average of 2,241 daily instances in emergency departments and 669 in other hospital areas. The British Medical Association has suggested these figures likely underestimate the true scale of the issue due to limitations in current data collection methods.

Patient Rights and Next Steps

If these times are likely to be exceeded, patients are entitled to request that their care be moved to an alternative provider. When a referral is made, patients typically have the option to book their first outpatient appointment at a hospital or clinic of their choice via the NHS e-Referral Service.

As the service continues its recovery efforts, observers are focused on the following developments:

• March 2026: The deadline for meeting the interim target of 65% of patients seen within 18 weeks.
• April 2026: The date by which NHS England is expected to publish additional information regarding unreported removals and steps to reduce them.
• August 2026: The deadline for a public update on progress against the recommendations set by the Office for Statistics Regulation.
• March 2027: The objective to increase the proportion of patients treated within 18 weeks to 70%.

NHS England continues to maintain an archive of historical RTT data alongside the new dashboard to allow for comparison against long-term performance levels. While the statistics remain accredited as official, the Office for Statistics Regulation emphasizes that maintaining full downloadable datasets alongside the new interactive tools remains vital for the analytical community.