The number of people waiting to start NHS treatment in England dropped to 7.2 million at the end of January, according to official data.
This was the third consecutive month with a fall in the number of referral to treatment (RTT) pathways, where a patient was waiting to start treatment, with the 7.2 million down from 7.29 million in December 2025.
Some patients are on multiple pathways so the number of unique patients is estimated to have dropped to 6.1 million from 6.2 million.
Among the 7.2 million, 135,657 patients were waiting more than a year, 1,616 were waiting more than 18 months and 200 people were waiting more than two years.
In 61.5% of cases the patient had been waiting up to 18 weeks, thus not meeting the 92% standard.
During January 1,793,680 new RTT pathways were started with more than 1.5 million completed.
Over the month, 305,944 pathways were completed as a result of admitted treatment and 1,263,119 were completed through non-admitted care.
For those pathways where the patient was waiting to start treatment at the end of January 2026, the median waiting time was 13.6 weeks.
Rising burnout
Sarah Woolnough, chief executive at The King’s Fund, said frontline staff were under immense pressure to meet the government’s ambition for 92% of patients waiting for non-urgent treatment to be seen within 18 weeks by 2029, while a rising number felt burnt out because of their work.
“It’s promising to see waiting lists at the lowest they’ve been in nearly three years, as well as emergency response times nearly under the 30-minute target for the year 2025/2026 and NHS leaders and staff deserve credit for this,” she continued.
“The challenge now will be maintaining this momentum when individual NHS organisations are operating under extremely tight spending envelopes.”
Pulling out all the stops
David Hare, chief executive of the Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN), said it was welcome to see a small decrease in the overall NHS waiting list, but what matters most to patients was how long they had to wait for their care.
“Today’s numbers show that the proportion of people being treated within the 18 week target remains stubbornly at just 61.5% – with the service needing to pull out all the stops if it has a hope of meeting its interim target for 65% of patients to be treated within this timeframe by the end of March, and ultimately ensure the overall target is met by the end of this Parliament,“ he said.
“With the significant financial and operational pressures local NHS systems are currently managing, our members are telling us that NHS Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) across the country have been scaling back planned activity across both NHS and independent sector providers, not because capacity isn’t available, but because systems are under intense pressure to meet exceptionally challenging financial targets.”
Hare added that while the IHPN recognises the hugely challenging position local NHS leaders are in, these changes are creating significant uncertainty for patients with thousands of NHS appointments and procedures now delayed or cancelled.
“This is leaving far too many people in unnecessary pain and unable to lead fulfilling, productive lives,” he continued.
“The independent sector remains fully committed to reducing the backlog and last year removed more than 1.6 million people from the NHS waiting list.
“But to continue to do so effectively, and in line with the NHS and Independent Sector Partnership Agreement announced by the prime minister last year, there needs to be much greater stability, clarity and forward visibility in commissioning plans,“ he added.
