Surgeons: 10-Year Plan a ‘critical opportunity’ to tackle waiting times

The Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) has said the NHS 10-Year Plan is a critical opportunity to tackle the unacceptably long NHS waiting lists as May 2025 data for routine hospital treatment is published today. 

Latest figures show the waiting list for consultant-led hospital treatment in England has fallen, with 7.35 million patient pathways recorded at the end of May 2025. This is a decrease of more than 29,814 from April 2025. The percentage of patients who began treatment within 18 weeks rose to 60.9% in May 2025, meaning there has been some progress against waiting times targets. The government has set an interim target of 65% of patients starting treatment within 18 weeks by March 2026. 

However, 196,920 patient pathways were still waiting over 52 weeks for treatment in May 2025. 

Commenting on the figures, Professor Peter Friend, Vice President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England), said: 

“The government’s 10-Year Plan, announced last week, outlines a series of initiatives aimed at tackling the backlog of patients awaiting routine hospital treatment, including a shift towards delivering care in community-based settings rather than hospitals, and innovation such as robot-assisted and digital surgery. 

“There is still much work to do to turn the ambitions of the 10-Year Plan into reality. Reforms of this scale cannot succeed without sustained and balanced investment across the entire health system: in primary and secondary care, hospital infrastructure, and, crucially, the workforce. Without this, waiting lists and the pressures on the NHS will not be resolved.

“The NHS’s long waiting times are one of the most visible signs of pressure on the health service. The Plan represents a critical opportunity for the government to set out a credible path to recovery, not just to cut waiting times, but in addressing the deeper issues that cause them. We now urgently need more detail on how the Plan will be delivered, including an updated workforce strategy.

“Every delayed operation means a patient left in pain or living with a lower quality of life.”

ENDS   

Notes to editors:  

1. The NHS 10 Year Plan is available at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-term-plan/  

2. NHS England’s latest consultant-led referral-to-treatment waiting times data is available here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/rtt-waiting-times/rtt-data-2025-26/#May25
   
   
3. The total waiting list stood at 7,359,457 in May 2025. 
   
   
4. The Royal College of Surgeons of England provides world-class education, assessment, and development to 30,000 surgeons, dental professionals, and members of the wider surgical and dental care teams at all stages of their careers. Our vision is to see excellent surgical care for everyone. We do this by setting professional standards, facilitating research, and championing the best outcomes for patients.   For more information, please contact the press office: telephone: 020 7869 6053/6054/6047; email: pressoffice@rcseng.ac.uk; out-of-hours media enquiries: 0207 869 6056.