London patients benefit from falling waiting lists

15 Nisan 2025

London patients benefit from falling waiting lists as NHS exceeds faster diagnosis standard for cancer

London NHS staff’s efforts to deliver additional appointments have cut waiting list times and hit the ambitious faster diagnosis standard for cancer, new data shows.

Waiting lists have dropped across the capital. In February 2025, 1,172,474 Londoners were on the waiting list to start treatment, a significant reduction of 2,709 compared to the previous month (1,177,183).

On top of this, more than four fifths (81.3%) of people living in London received the all clear or a definitive cancer diagnosis within four weeks – the highest proportion on record.

This meant almost 32,000 Londoners were diagnosed or given the all clear for cancer in February within 28 days (31,997) – 1,333 more than the previous month. (30,664).

Waits of over a year fell for the ninth month in a row, dropping by more than 111,000 since last year (39,999 in February 2024) to 23,727 in February 2025, making up just 2% of the overall waiting list.

Around 225,000 treatments were delivered by the NHS in London in February, 15% higher than the same period pre-pandemic (194,697 in February 2020).

Dr. Chris Streather, Regional Medical Director for NHS London, said: “These latest figures are promising signs of progress across a range of London services, demonstrating a significant improvement to people’s experience in the capital.

“While we know there is much more to be done to bring down waits across all NHS services, our valued NHS London staff continue to reduce waiting times for urgent and emergency care, and we are hopeful that we will continue on this trajectory.

“It is also encouraging to see a record proportion of Londoners receiving clarity from cancer checks within the four-week standard, helping people to plan next steps or feel reassured by the all clear.

“We continue to ask anyone noticing concerning symptoms or in need of care to come forward for these vital checks.”

Separate monthly data out last week found that despite it being a busy March in London A&Es – with over 13,500 A&E attendances each day in London alone (13,530) – waits below the target of four hours in A&E and nearly all categories of ambulance response times improved on both the month and year before, as hardworking staff continue to bring down waits for urgent and emergency care.

There were 326,137 A&E attendances in London, admitted transferred or discharged within four hours last month – the highest number since October 2021 (330,191) and up from both the month (average per day increase of 4.2%) and the year before (average per day up 1.9% from March 2024).

Category 1 ambulance response times were the fastest in almost three years (six minutes, 48 seconds) – since April 2022 (six minutes, 40 seconds) – despite services facing the busiest March for ambulance incidents since March 2020 (119,056 incidents compared to 121,280 in March 2020)

The average response for category 2 ambulance calls (29 minutes, 2 seconds) around two minutes quicker than the month previous (31 minutes, 19 seconds) and more than four minutes quicker than the same month last year (33 minutes, 11 seconds in March 2024).

 

source: NHS