Gynaecology: Waiting Lists

The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy puts the 10-Year Health Plan’s new care model into action to deliver faster, tangible improvements across four outcomes that matter most to women across England. Through the Renewed Strategy, we will support integrated care boards to introduce a single point of access for all non-urgent referrals to gynaecology and women's health services to speed up access to better treatment. We will also fund a specialist centre in each region for group-based approaches to high volume low complexity women’s health pathways, which will improve productivity and empower women in common clinical areas, helping reduce waiting lists and supporting self-management.

We are committed to returning by March 2029 to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment, including for gynaecology. As of March 2026, the waiting list for gynaecology stands at 560,866 with 18-week performance at 60.9%, up from 54.2% since the 2024 General Election.

Our Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, sets out reforms we are making to improve gynaecology waiting times across England. This includes innovative models of care that offer care closer to home as well as in the community, piloting gynaecology pathways in community diagnostic centres for patients with post-menopausal bleeding and increasing the relative funding available to incentivise providers to take on more gynaecology procedures. Gynaecology is one of the specialties being prioritised for surgical hubs, which helps to reduce elective waits and increase activity. We are increasing the number of hubs over the next three years so more operations can be carried out.