NHS TRACKER: THE BEST AND WORST HOSPITALS IN THE COUNTRY
The NHS hospital backlog stands at 7.3 million – three million more than before the pandemic.
Targets for ambulances, emergency departments, appointment waiting times and cancer care have not been met in at least five years.
However, every hospital is facing unique levels of pressure. Use our tool to see the best and worst hospitals near you.
What are the best hospitals in England?
The Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust ranks highest amongst three key targets, Telegraph analysis shows.
The trust performed 1st for A&E waits in May, 19th for cancer treatment and 1st for appointment waiting times.
The Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, Barking Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals, and Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust also rank highly.
What are the worst hospitals in England?
The Countess of Chester Hospital ranks as the worst hospital in England based on average performance in the three key metrics.
This trust came 110th for A&E waits, in 91st (out of 117) position for cancer backlogs and 115th for appointment waiting times.
Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital, University Hospitals Birmingham, Western Sussex Hospitals, and Hull University Teaching Hospitals also rank in the bottom five.
How long does it take to get a hospital appointment?
On average, the average patient in England had been waiting just under 13 weeks for their appointment, according to NHS England.
For hospital appointments, the backlog has increased from 4.4 million to 7.3 million since January 2020. Although there are signs that is now starting to fall, the current rate of decline means it will take years to reach pre-pandemic levels.
Currently, over 40 per cent of appointments take more than 18 weeks to be dealt with – the target set by NHS England. This is up from 16 per cent pre-Covid.
How long does it take to be treated at A&E?
In May 2025, just under 25pc of patients waited more than four hours to be dealt with at emergency departments, an increase from 16 per cent before the pandemic.
The NHS aims for 95 per cent of patients to be seen within four hours. It has failed to meet that target since 2014.
Hospitals have also seen a surge in trolley waits since before the pandemic. These occur when a patient is seen as needing further treatment but a hospital is unable to find a ward bed immediately.
In May, over 42,000 patients waited more than 12 hours from the decision to admit to actually being admitted, up from 1,100 in March 2020.
How long does it take for cancer treatment?
In April 2025, 91.3 per cent of cancer patients started treatment within a month of the decision to treat, according to NHS England. Just under 70 per cent of patients started treatment within two months of an urgent referral from a GP.
The NHS says 96 per cent of patients should start within a month, a target it has not met since December 2020.
How long do ambulances take to arrive?
On average, it takes a Category Two ambulance in England, used for issues such as strokes or sepsis, just under 28 minutes to arrive, according to NHS England. Before the pandemic, it took 21 minutes. The 18-minute target has not been met since July 2020.
For a Category One ambulance, the most urgent type of call, it takes just under eight minutes for an ambulance to arrive. This is almost two minutes more than pre-pandemic levels.
How we ranked this data
All data for this tracker is sourced from NHS England and NHS Digital. We have collected data only for acute NHS trusts in England, and we have excluded mental health and specialist trusts. One trust, Isle of Wight NHS Trust, has been excluded because it does not report enough of the data we are tracking.
We have matched NHS trusts to postcodes based on distance, and show the closest trusts for a postcode within a 15-mile radius as the crow flies.
We have associated NHS acute trusts with nearby ambulance trusts. Trusts in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire are served by two ambulance trusts – we show data for the East of England.
The tracker’s data is fully updated approximately on a monthly basis. Trusts are shown to be improving if their average targets from the latest three months are better than the comparable three months in the year before.
Healthcare targets have been sourced from official NHS guidance. In the case of GPs, we have used the NHS’s recent target of getting appointments to pre-pandemic levels, but applied it only to face-to-face appointments.
To rank trusts, we used three key metrics – patients waiting more than 18 weeks for hospital treatment, A&E patients waiting more than four hours to be seen and cancer patients waiting more than 31 days to start treatment.
We then look at an average of the rankings to produce an average rank, which forms the basis for the best and worst trusts.
2025-01-28T06:03:26Z
