# A&E waiting times in England

Every major emergency department in England has now missed the four hour standard for years. In May 2026, 75.7% of all attendances were seen within four hours across all department types, against the 95% NHS Constitution standard. For Type 1 major A&E departments the figure was 61.9%. Not a single one of the 121 reporting trusts with a Type 1 department met the standard in that month. This page traces how England reached this point, from 97% in 2010 to where it stands now.

Source page: https://britishresilienceindex.com/deep-dive/ae-england
Machine readable data: https://britishresilienceindex.com/data/deep-dive/ae-england.json

## How to read this

These are NHS England's published monthly A&E Attendances and Emergency Admissions statistics, collected via the WSitAE data return. The headline is the share of all A&E attendances admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of arrival, against the 95% NHS Constitution standard. Type 1 figures cover major emergency departments only; Type 2 and Type 3 cover single specialty units and minor injury units respectively. The 12 hour wait figure is the decision to admit measure: patients who waited more than 12 hours from a clinical decision to admit them to the point of leaving the department. This is the measure used in the NHS Constitution.

## From 97% to fewer than two thirds in Type 1

In November 2010, the first full month on record, England's emergency departments saw 97.2% of patients across all department types within four hours, comfortably above the 95% NHS Constitution standard. For Type 1 major departments the figure was 95.9%. The decline since then has been almost unbroken. By 2016 the all types figure had fallen below 90%. By 2022, after the pressure of the pandemic and its aftermath, it was 71.2%. Not one trust with a major emergency department met the standard in May 2026.

**Series**

| year | pct_all | pct_type1 | partial |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2,010 | 96 | 94.1 | true |
| 2,011 | 96.8 | 95.2 | false |
| 2,012 | 96.2 | 94.4 | false |
| 2,013 | 95.4 | 93.1 | false |
| 2,014 | 94.4 | 91.6 | false |
| 2,015 | 93 | 89.4 | false |
| 2,016 | 89.2 | 83.8 | false |
| 2,017 | 89 | 83.4 | false |
| 2,018 | 88 | 81.5 | false |
| 2,019 | 84.7 | 76.3 | false |
| 2,020 | 86.9 | 80.8 | false |
| 2,021 | 79.2 | 69.9 | false |
| 2,022 | 71.2 | 57.6 | false |
| 2,023 | 72.2 | 58.1 | false |
| 2,024 | 73.4 | 59 | false |
| 2,025 | 74.7 | 60.5 | false |
| 2,026 | 75.2 | 61.3 | true |

- **Target**: 95
- **Note**: Annual figures are averages of monthly performance percentages. 2010 covers August to December only; 2026 covers January to May only. The standard has not been met nationally in any full year since 2015.

## 12 hour waits: from dozens to half a million

The starkest measure of pressure is the number of people who waited more than 12 hours from a clinical decision to admit them to the point they were moved to a bed. This is sometimes called a trolley wait. In 2011, across all of England, it happened 130 times in the whole year. In 2025 it happened 554,044 times, over four thousand times a day on average. In a single month, May 2026, there were 50,212 such waits.

**Series**

| year | count | partial |
|---|---|---|
| 2,010 | 18 | true |
| 2,011 | 130 | false |
| 2,012 | 37 | false |
| 2,013 | 261 | false |
| 2,014 | 487 | false |
| 2,015 | 1,206 | false |
| 2,016 | 2,600 | false |
| 2,017 | 2,792 | false |
| 2,018 | 4,059 | false |
| 2,019 | 8,272 | false |
| 2,020 | 14,258 | false |
| 2,021 | 48,626 | false |
| 2,022 | 348,135 | false |
| 2,023 | 415,136 | false |
| 2,024 | 518,237 | false |
| 2,025 | 554,044 | false |
| 2,026 | 270,793 | true |

## More than 28 million attendances in the latest 12 months

Total A&E attendances in May 2026 were 2,457,398, up 2.5% on May 2025. Across the 12 months to May 2026, there were 28,083,802 attendances. By comparison, in 2011 there were around 21.4 million across the full year. Demand has risen by roughly a third over 15 years, while performance has dropped by around 35 percentage points on the all types measure.

**Series**

| year | total_attendances | partial |
|---|---|---|
| 2,011 | 21,420,766 | false |
| 2,012 | 21,930,328 | false |
| 2,013 | 21,731,200 | false |
| 2,014 | 22,444,954 | false |
| 2,015 | 22,394,734 | false |
| 2,016 | 23,580,825 | false |
| 2,017 | 23,606,962 | false |
| 2,018 | 24,460,954 | false |
| 2,019 | 25,636,826 | false |
| 2,020 | 18,765,581 | false |
| 2,021 | 22,779,783 | false |
| 2,022 | 25,175,637 | false |
| 2,023 | 25,610,769 | false |
| 2,024 | 27,431,201 | false |
| 2,025 | 27,802,272 | false |

- **Note**: The 2020 drop reflects the sharp fall in attendances during the COVID-19 pandemic. Annual figures cover the calendar year January to December.

## The trusts under most pressure

No trust with a major Type 1 emergency department met the 95% standard in May 2026. The league table below ranks all 122 trusts reporting Type 1 attendances by their four hour performance in that month. Children's hospitals are included in the data but tend to serve a different population; all departments shown are Type 1. The worst performing trust saw fewer than four in ten patients within four hours.

- **Note**: Children's hospital trusts (Alder Hey, Birmingham Women's and Children's, Sheffield Children's) serve a different patient population and are not directly comparable to adult major emergency departments. Smaller trusts with fewer attendances can see larger month to month swings. Figures are for May 2026 only.
| name | pct_4h_type1 | type1_attendances | over4h_type1 | over12h_dta | region |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust | 36.1 | 8,950 | 5,706 | 396 | NHS England South West |
| Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust | 42.4 | 7,291 | 4,207 | 653 | NHS England South West |
| Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust | 43 | 13,270 | 7,568 | 1,142 | NHS England Midlands |
| The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust | 44.8 | 11,572 | 6,394 | 949 | NHS England Midlands |
| Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 46 | 10,007 | 5,405 | 33 | NHS England South East |
| Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust | 46.4 | 7,154 | 3,833 | 138 | NHS England South West |
| Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 46.6 | 7,409 | 3,961 | 539 | NHS England North West |
| Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 46.9 | 9,193 | 4,880 | 7 | NHS England North East and Yorkshire |
| East Cheshire NHS Trust | 47.6 | 4,715 | 2,469 | 328 | NHS England North West |
| Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust | 47.7 | 10,192 | 5,333 | 459 | NHS England North East and Yorkshire |
| Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 47.8 | 7,954 | 4,155 | 432 | NHS England South East |
| Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 48.1 | 8,227 | 4,273 | 858 | NHS England North West |
| Somerset NHS Foundation Trust | 48.6 | 12,516 | 6,434 | 77 | NHS England South West |
| Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 48.8 | 6,804 | 3,487 | 200 | NHS England Midlands |
| University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust | 49.3 | 15,679 | 7,949 | 821 | NHS England Midlands |

**Top performers**

| name | pct_4h_type1 | type1_attendances | region |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust | 79 | 12,285 | NHS England North East and Yorkshire |
| Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust | 79.4 | 11,679 | NHS England London |
| Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust | 83.5 | 16,449 | NHS England North East and Yorkshire |
| George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust | 86.5 | 6,543 | NHS England Midlands |

## A target set in 2004, unmet in any calendar year since 2015

The NHS Constitution standard is that 95% of patients attending A&E should be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of arrival. It was introduced in 2004. England last met it on a full calendar year basis in 2014. Since 2022 the national figure has been stuck between 71% and 75% for all department types, and between 57% and 61% for Type 1 major departments alone. In May 2026, zero out of 121 reporting trusts with a Type 1 department met the standard.

**Timeline**

| label | event |
|---|---|
| 2004 | 95% four hour standard introduced. |
| 2014 | Last year England met the 95% standard nationally on all types performance (94.4% average; the standard was met in some individual months). |
| 2019 | All types performance had fallen to 84.7%. Type 1 at 76.3%. |
| 2022 | Step change. All types falls to 71.2%; 12 hour trolley waits reach 348,135 for the year, from 8,272 in 2019. |
| May 2026 | All types 75.7%; Type 1 61.9%. Zero trusts meet the 95% standard. 50,212 trolley waits in a single month. |

- **Note**: The NHS Constitution 95% standard is the legal and constitutional measure. NHS England has at various points set lower operational recovery targets as stepping stones; these are internal planning figures and do not replace the constitutional standard. The figures on this page are measured against the 95% standard.

## For trusts, NHS England and government

- The 95% standard has not been met nationally since 2014. Is it still the right target, and what would it take to return to it?
- Twelve hour trolley waits have grown from around 130 in 2011 to over half a million in 2025. How much of this is emergency department capacity, how much is bed availability upstream, and how much is social care discharge downstream?
- Performance varies from 36% to 94% across Type 1 trusts in a single month. What are the best performing non specialist trusts doing that others could adopt?
- Total attendances have risen by roughly a third since 2011. How much is demand driven and how much reflects patients attending A&E because they cannot access primary care or urgent treatment centres?
- Children's hospital trusts consistently outperform adult departments. Is their patient mix, staffing model, or flow management doing something that adult departments cannot replicate?

## Sources

- NHS England, A&E Attendances and Emergency Admissions Monthly Statistics, May 2026 (https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/ae-attendances-and-emergency-admissions-2026-27/) · Open Government Licence v3.0
- NHS England, Monthly A&E Time Series May 2026 (XLS) (https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/06/Monthly-AE-Time-Series-May-2026-wlgnE2.xls) · Open Government Licence v3.0
- NHS England, Statistical Commentary May 2026 (PDF) (https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/06/Statistical-commentary-May-2026-sDl1e.pdf) · Open Government Licence v3.0

## Caveats and data notes

- The NHS Constitution standard is that 95% of patients are admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of arrival. This is distinct from any internal operational or recovery targets NHS England may set.
- The four hour standard covers all A&E attendances at the reporting trust. Type 1 figures cover major emergency departments only; Type 2 covers single specialty units; Type 3 covers other units and minor injury units.
- The 12 hour wait figure is the decision to admit measure only: the time from a clinical decision to admit the patient to the point they leave the department. This is the NHS Constitution measure and does not include patients who waited 12 hours without a decision to admit.
- From May 2019 to June 2023, 14 Clinical Review of Standard field testing trusts submitted attendance figures but not four hour performance figures. This affects the cohort used for performance calculations during that period and introduces a discontinuity when those trusts were reintroduced in June 2023.
- Trust level figures are for May 2026 only and can show larger month to month variation than the national aggregate. Single month trust comparisons should be treated with caution.
- Children's hospital trusts (Alder Hey, Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust, Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust) serve a substantially different patient mix and are not directly comparable to general adult major emergency departments.
- The 2012 annual 12 hour wait total (37) is lower than both 2011 and 2013. Inspection of the monthly series shows two null return months (April and May 2012) and a further null in October 2012. The annual total should be treated as a lower bound for that year.
- Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

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British Resilience Index, a non-partisan UK civic data project. Every figure is
reconciled to its primary official publisher before it is shown. Free to cite with
attribution: https://britishresilienceindex.com