Bottom-of-the-table hospital promises improvement

A hospital trust which came bottom of the England league table for treatment waiting times has said it is working to improve capacity.

Figures for May showed The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital in Gobowen, Shropshire, started treatment for just 44.5% of its patients within 18 weeks, with the national target being 60%.

That was worse than the figure for April, which was 48.3%.

The hospital, rated "good" by the Care Quality Commission, said: "A number of factors combined which impacted significantly on our operational capacity." It added it was confident of hitting the 60% target by March 2026.

National NHS data for May showed waiting list numbers were down by nearly 30,000 to 7,360,000 – the lowest total since March 2023.

But an analysis of hospital trusts by BBC Verify found that more than a third were seeing a smaller share of patients within 18 weeks since January's announcement of an NHS improvement plan.

The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt is a specialist orthopaedic hospital which provides elective orthopaedic surgery.

As well as being bottom of the table for the 18-week target, it ranked 133rd out of 134 for the percentage of patients waiting more than 52 weeks for elective treatment.

A hospital spokesperson said: "We have worked with our consultant body, with NHS England and the national Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) team to maximise capacity, and this work will drive improvement in the coming weeks and months."

NHS England said the health service had been experiencing "huge demand" but waiting times were improving because "staff are showing their determination to improve access to services".

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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