15/05/2026
We want to say a huge thank you to our staff, who have done a fantastic job in helping bring down waiting times for surgery.
The Government set a national target for 65 per cent of patients to be seen within 18 weeks for elective treatment (planned surgery) by March this year – though Trusts starting from a lower benchmark were given an adjusted target. For RJAH, which was achieving around 46% a year ago, our prescribed target was 60%.
We exceeded that target, achieving 62.15% by the end of March 2026. That increase of more than 16% was the fourth biggest in percentage terms out of all hospital Trusts in the country over the 12-month period.
In fact, our performance had deteriorated by May 2025 – a period when we were introducing a new electronic patient record – to around 44.5%, so the improvement of 17.66% in the 10 months from there was all the more impressive, and was down to a focussed team effort across the hospital.
Over the next year, there is so much more to come – including further productivity improvements, service transformation, and the opening of an additional operating theatre in the summer which will give us the capacity to increase activity levels still further.
Everything we are doing is with the aim of offering patients the best possible care in terms of access, outcomes and experience.
🔗 Read more 👇
https://www.rjah.nhs.uk/about-us/news/rjah-staff-thanked-for-helping-cut-national-elective-surgery-waiting-list
