NHS activity and performance summary: August and September 2019

Unscheduled care

Average daily A&E attendances increased in September and were the second highest in the previous twelve months. The percentage of patients spending less than 4 hours in A&E decreased and the number of patients spending more than 12 hours in A&E increased. Performance is the worst on record for both measures.

The average number of daily calls to the ambulance service decreased in September, although the percentage of calls that were classed as the most serious (‘red’ calls) was a record high. The 65% target for red calls receiving a response within 8 minutes was met.

The average ambulance response time for red calls increased slightly in September. The number of delayed transfers of care increased slightly in September.

Scheduled care

The number of patients waiting longer than the target time for diagnostic and therapy tests increased in August. Average waits increased for both diagnostic and therapy tests. 

Referral to treatment performance declined from last month. A lower percentage of patients waited less than 26 weeks, the lowest since January 2018. More patients waited longer than 36 weeks, the highest since January 2018. The average time waiting for treatment increased.

From July to August, the percentage of patients starting treatment within the target time for cancer increased for patients on the urgent pathway but decreased for those not via the urgent cancer pathway. Experimental statistics for the single cancer pathway are also included in this release.