Guide to NHS waiting times in England

If you're referred for a physical or mental health condition, you have the legal right to start non-urgent consultant-led treatment, or be seen by a specialist for suspected cancer, within maximum waiting times.

This right only applies to services commissioned by the NHS in England and does not include public health services commissioned by local authorities, maternity services, or non-consultant-led mental health services.

Your waiting time starts from when the hospital or service receives your referral letter, or when you book your first appointment through the NHS e-Referral Service.

During this time period, you may:

• have tests, scans or other procedures to help ensure that your treatment is appropriate for your condition
• have medicine or therapy to manage your symptoms until you start treatment
• be referred to another consultant or department

Your waiting time ends if a clinician decides no treatment is necessary, if you decide you do not want to be treated, or when your treatment begins.

This could include:

• being admitted to hospital for an operation or treatment
• starting treatment that does not require you to stay in hospital, such as taking medicine
• beginning fitting for a medical device, such as leg braces
• agreeing to have your condition monitored for a time to see whether you need further treatment
• receiving advice from hospital staff about how to manage your condition

Tip: Did you know that in most cases you have the legal right to choose the hospital or service you'd like to go to, as well as the clinical team led by a consultant or named healthcare professional?

For more information, see our guidance on NHS hospital services and accessing mental health service.

Information:

Check waiting times

If you're waiting for a hospital appointment or treatment, you can use the My Planned Care website to check the waiting times at your hospital.

Check hospital waiting times on the My Planned Care website

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust – My Planned Care NHS

Maximum waiting times for non-urgent referrals

The maximum waiting time for non-urgent, consultant-led treatments is 18 weeks from the day your appointment is booked through the NHS e-Referral Service, or when the hospital or service receives your referral letter.

However, your right to an 18-week waiting time does not apply if:

• you choose to wait longer
• delaying the start of your treatment is in your best clinical interests, for example, when stopping smoking or losing weight first is likely to improve the outcome of your treatment
• it is clinically appropriate for your condition to be actively monitored in secondary care without clinical intervention or diagnostic procedures at that stage
• you fail to attend appointments that you had chosen from a set of reasonable options
• the treatment is no longer necessary

Maximum waiting times for urgent cancer referrals

The maximum waiting time for suspected cancer is 2 weeks from the day your appointment is booked through the NHS e-Referral Service, or when the hospital or service receives your referral letter.

Note: Referrals for investigations of breast symptoms, where cancer is not initially suspected, are not urgent referrals for suspected cancer and therefore fall outside the scope of this right.

You have the legal right to ask to be seen or treated by a different provider if you're likely to wait longer than the maximum waiting time specified for your treatment.

The hospital or integrated care board (ICB) will have to investigate and offer you a range of suitable alternative hospitals or clinics that would be able to see you sooner. If you're not happy with the organisation's response, you can complain by following the NHS complaints procedure.

NHS England has more detailed statistics on cancer waiting times

Compare waiting times

Waiting times may vary between hospitals, and you should consider this when choosing a hospital.

When you're referred for your first outpatient appointment, the NHS e-Referral Service lets you book the appointment at a hospital or clinic of your choice, on a date and at a time that suits you.

You can use the My Planned Care website to compare waiting times at different hospitals.

The length of time you wait will depend on your specific treatment and clinical needs, and you could be seen quicker or wait longer than the waiting time shown.

What happens if my operation is cancelled at the last minute?

If the hospital or service cancels your operation at the last minute (on or after the day of admission) and for non-clinical reasons, they should offer another binding date within 28 days or fund your treatment at a date and hospital of your choice.

If you're not offered an appointment within 28 days, you should complain to your local ICB using the NHS complaints procedure.

If your operation is cancelled before the day of admission, the hospital or service is not obliged to provide an alternative option within 28 days.

Our surgery has been working hard to improve access to GP services and raise the bar on patient experience and satisfaction and thank you for working with us to improve feedback. 

The Annual GP patient survey  has been launched for 2024.  This is a national survey commissioned by NHS England.  A small selection of patients from every GP practice is contacted by research company Ipso, with an invitation to complete a survey about their GP practice, either online or by post.

Patients are chosen at random; the GP practice has no say who gets to take part in the survey and will not know who has been invited to take part.  Results of the anonymous survey are published in July 2024.

We would ask if you received an invite to this survey that you respond, so the practice gets an accurate result of what our patients think regarding our practice and services.

Kind Regards

Dr J Trivedi

Extended hours Appointments

Evening and weekend appointments are available with GPs and other healthcare professionals for people who find it difficult to take time off work or have other commitments during daytime hours. 

The following evening and weekend GP appointments are available for our registered patients  living in Slough

New Venue:  Crosby House Surgery, 91 Stoke Poges Lane, Slough, SL1 3NY

 Opening Times 

 Monday to Friday 18:30-20:00 

 Saturday 09:00-17:00 

Appointments are pre-bookable through your usual GP surgery.  There are a range of clinical appointments available with GPs, nurses, healthcare assistants and phlebotomy clinics (blood tests). 

There are two ways people can make a complaint about GPs, dentists, opticians or pharmacies:

o They can complain to the healthcare provider: this is the organisation where they received the NHS service, for example a GP practice, a dental practice, a community pharmacy or an optometry practice or

o They can complain to the commissioner of the service: this is the organisation that paid for the service or care they received.

After 1 July 2023 if people want to make a complaint about primary care services to the commissioner, the way to do this is changing. Rather than contacting NHS England, people will contact the Complaints team via new contact details below:

South East Complaints Hub

NHS Frimley ICB

Aldershot Centre for Health

Hospital Hill 

Aldershot 

Hampshire 

GU11 1AY

Phone number: 0300 561 0290 

Email address: frimleyicb.southeastcomplaints@nhs.net

As each email received is so important to the team, an acknowledgement to all complaints will be sent as soon as possible.

Information governance regulations mean that the emails sent to the old email address after 1 July, cannot be automatically forwarded and the inbox will not be accessible. People will therefore receive an automatic response, asking them to resend their email to the new address.

Members of the public with ongoing complaints received after 1 July 2022 will receive a letter from NHS England informing them that the Complaints team based in the South East Complaints Hub, hosted by NHS Frimley ICB will now be handling their complaint with confirmation of their case handler. We would like to reassure you that the current team and case handler will remain the same as the staff move organisation.

Members of the public will still be able to make a complaint to the provider. This is NOT changing. There is also no change for people wishing to make a complaint for specialised services, health and justice, screening and immunisations and Continuing Healthcare.

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