Health Services: Waiting Lists
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients were removed from NHS elective waiting lists through unreported removals, administrative methods and other means of validation in each month in the last two years.
Answered by Karin Smyth
Validation is a long-standing and routine part of providers’ waiting list management, which ensures that patients are on the best pathway to meet their healthcare needs. This includes whether they still need their appointments and that patient records are accurate, as well as checking for duplicate appointments. Unreported removals are not the same as validation and are not a single reason for removal from the waiting list. They capture data not reflected in submitted clock starts or completed pathways, and can reflect timing, reporting and data quality issues.
The Department doesn't hold centrally data on numbers removed from the list through administrative or other forms of validation.
It is the record levels of elective activity being delivered by National Health Service staff that is now getting the waiting list down. The 18.6 million completed pathways recorded in 2025/26 is the highest number on record, up 2.8% on the previous year.
The following table shows the number of cases per month, from March 2024 to March 2026, where patients were removed from the Referral to Treatment waiting list:
Month | Total completed pathways | Unreported removals | Total removals | Unreported removals as a percentage of total removals |
March 2024 | 1,429,572 | 243,008 | 1,672,580 | 14.5% |
April 2024 | 1,481,924 | 243,898 | 1,725,822 | 14.1% |
May 2024 | 1,516,579 | 236,720 | 1,753,299 | 13.5% |
June 2024 | 1,454,572 | 212,805 | 1,667,377 | 12.8% |
July 2024 | 1,598,491 | 255,257 | 1,853,748 | 13.8% |
August 2024 | 1,404,465 | 223,086 | 1,627,551 | 13.7% |
September 2024 | 1,516,823 | 260,758 | 1,777,581 | 14.7% |
October 2024 | 1,660,478 | 268,754 | 1,929,232 | 13.9% |
November 2024 | 1,557,283 | 247,609 | 1,804,892 | 13.7% |
December 2024 | 1,335,075 | 231,009 | 1,566,084 | 14.8% |
January 2025 | 1,591,510 | 266,553 | 1,858,063 | 14.3% |
February 2025 | 1,458,339 | 256,589 | 1,714,928 | 15.0% |
March 2025 | 1,535,984 | 245,442 | 1,781,426 | 13.8% |
April 2025 | 1,450,094 | 286,883 | 1,736,977 | 16.5% |
May 2025 | 1,500,695 | 289,637 | 1,790,332 | 16.2% |
June 2025 | 1,558,632 | 257,791 | 1,816,423 | 14.2% |
July 2025 | 1,648,945 | 271,150 | 1,920,094 | 14.1% |
August 2025 | 1,404,088 | 209,442 | 1,613,530 | 13.0% |
September 2025 | 1,617,383 | 243,722 | 1,861,105 | 13.1% |
October 2025 | 1,677,869 | 245,037 | 1,922,905 | 12.7% |
November 2025 | 1,536,543 | 260,299 | 1,796,842 | 14.5% |
December 2025 | 1,426,850 | 234,643 | 1,661,493 | 14.1% |
January 2026 | 1,569,063 | 268,283 | 1,837,346 | 14.6% |
February 2026 | 1,516,631 | 261,553 | 1,778,184 | 14.7% |
March 2026 | 1,711,408 | 351,835 | 2,063,243 | 17.1% |
Source: Referral to Treatment Waiting Times data on 19 May 2026.
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