The NHS postcode lottery
For the same NHS operation, how long you wait depends heavily on which hospital you are sent to. The slowest trust in the country can be treating people many times slower than the fastest — often two hospitals a short drive apart.
The widest gap right now is in general internal medicine: LEWISHAM AND GREENWICH NHS TRUST is waiting 35× longer than UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS OF LEICESTER NHS TRUST for the same care — 35 weeks versus 1 week. And you have a legal right to ask to be sent to the faster one.
Compiled by Dr Mustafa Ghafouri (MBChB, MSc) · NHS England RTT data, May 2026
The gap for every specialty
The fastest and slowest NHS trust for each specialty, ranked by the size of the gap. Only NHS trusts with enough patients for a reliable figure are included. Every trust links to its full record so you can check it.
Why the gap exists — and what you can do about it
Trusts have different theatre capacity, staffing, backlogs and how they pool their waiting lists. None of this is visible to a patient at the point of referral, so most people simply go to their nearest hospital and wait — even when somewhere nearby is treating people months sooner.
In England you have a legal right, at the point your GP refers you, to choose which hospital you are sent to for planned care — including one with a shorter list. It is the NHS Right to Choose, and it costs nothing.
Check your own wait
See where your operation is fastest near you
Compare every NHS hospital for your specialty, ranked by wait and distance from your postcode.
Compare NHS waits by specialtyHow these figures are worked out
Every figure comes from NHS England's monthly Referral-to-Treatment (RTT) statistics, for May 2026. For each specialty we take the median wait at every NHS trust, keep only those with enough waiting patients for the median to be reliable, and compare the fastest with the slowest. Community and mental-health trusts are set aside so the comparison is like-for-like. The “gap” is the slowest divided by the fastest. Full method is on the methodology page; nothing here is medical advice.