NHS hits 65.3% treatment target as Labour claims policy victory amid methodology concerns

Hospitals in England have achieved a key Referral to Treatment (RTT) target of treating 65.3% of patients within 18 weeks, marking the first time this threshold has been met since November 2021. The figures, published by NHS England in May 2026, prompted outgoing Health Secretary Wes Streeting to declare that the Labour government’s plan for the National Health Service is working. Streeting, who had instructed the NHS to reach this benchmark by the end of March, stated that the achievement represented the biggest cut in waiting lists in a single month in 17 years.

The data indicates that the total NHS waiting list in England has decreased by 517,000 since Labour took office in July 2024, falling from 7.62 million to 7.11 million. This reduction marks the fifth consecutive month of decline in the total number of patients waiting for tests and treatments. Sir Jim Mackey, NHS England’s chief executive, described the result as a huge moment for the service, while Sarah Woolnough of The King’s Fund noted that the improvement provides necessary relief from the anxiety caused by extended delays.

However, the surge in performance has drawn sharp criticism regarding the methods used to achieve it. The improvement was largely driven by a £120 million sprint funded by NHS England, which incentivised trusts to remove duplicate or unnecessary appointments from waiting lists. Critics, including opposition figures, have described this tactic as fiddling the figures, noting that some trusts earned significant revenue by cleaning their lists rather than treating patients. For instance, the Shrewsbury and Telford Trust removed 14,148 patients after being offered £33 per removal, earning more than £460,000 in the process.

Bea Taylor, a fellow at the Nuffield Trust, highlighted that 70% of the progress towards the 65% target since April 2025 occurred in the final two months leading up to the deadline. This rapid acceleration contrasts with the RTT performance remaining below 60% for much of the recent period. While the jump from 59.8% in March 2025 to 65.3% in March 2026 is statistically significant, experts warn that the intensity of demand and the artificial nature of the list reductions pose challenges to long-term recovery.

The achievement stands in contrast to other areas of the health service, where the NHS missed key performance targets for the 2025-26 period, including those for A&E care, cancer treatment, and ambulance response times. The RTT target remains a critical benchmark for Labour’s pledge to restore the standard to 92% of patients seen within 18 weeks by 2029. With huge waves of patients continuing to flow onto waiting lists, Taylor and Woolnough cautioned that sustaining the recent speed of progress to meet the 2029 goal remains unlikely.