The number of people awaiting NHS treatment in England inched upwards in June to hit 7.37 million people.
This was slightly up on the 7.36 million people awaiting treatment in May, which was the lowest total since March 2023.
The data reveals that the number of referral to treatment (RTT) pathways where a patient was waiting to start treatment at the end of June 2025 was 7.4 million.
With some patients on multiple pathways, the number of unique patients was estimated to be around 6.2 million.
Among the 7.4 million, in 191,813 cases the patient was waiting more than a year, in 1,103 cases they were waiting more than 18 months, and in 182 cases they were waiting more than two years.
In only 61.5% of cases the patient had been waiting up to 18 weeks and so not meeting the 92% standard.
During June 2025, 1,828,833 new RTT pathways were started and 320,947 pathways were completed as a result of admitted treatment and 1,237,188 were completed in other ways (non-admitted).
For those pathways where the patient was waiting to start treatment at the end of June 2025, the median waiting time was 13.4 weeks.
The 92nd percentile waiting time was 41.8 weeks.
Need to increase activity
Danielle Henry, director of policy at the IHPN, said: “These figures show that the NHS needs to rapidly increase the amount of activity it delivers if it is going to successfully reduce waiting lists by one million each year – something which NHS England itself has said is required if it is to meet the 18-week target once again by the end of this Parliament.
“While achieving this will not be easy, it is still possible and will require the NHS to use all the tools in its armoury to improve patient access to care.
“This includes the capacity available in the independent sector where providers are already helping over 1.5 million patients a year to get the treatment they need and off an NHS waiting list, with patients treated on average seven weeks faster than in NHS providers.
“IHPN will continue to work with the NHS and Government to ensure the principles contained in the recent NHS and independent sector partnership agreement launched by the Prime Minister are fully embedded – enabling patients to have a greater choice over their care so they can get the treatment they need, when they need it.”
