Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust sees waiting lists fall by 8,630 since the election.

Across England, the NHS saw the waiting list fall by more than 86,000 in November to 7.31 million, as new data shows staff faced record demand in 2025.

The progress came despite the NHS’s busiest ever year, with 27.8 million A&E attendances in 2025 – over 367,000 up on 2024, with 2.33 million attendances in December alone.

In the year since the Elective Reform Plan was launched, Labour have brought in record investment and real modernisation to cut waiting lists – including creating more evening and weekend clinics, new and expanded community diagnostic centres and surgical hubs, crack teams of experts being sent to 20 hospital trusts across England with the highest levels of economic inactivity, and cutting unnecessary appointments by sending patients “straight to test” rather than multiple clinic visits.

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said:

We said our elective reform plan would get waiting lists down, and one year on that’s exactly what it’s delivering. Along with record investment, we’re doing things differently to get patients seen quicker, back to work and living their lives.

By sending crack teams into hospitals to supercharge care, opening more community diagnostic centres longer and later, and cutting wasteful spending, we’re turning the tanker round and patients are starting to feel the difference.

It will be a long road, but together with NHS staff, we are fixing our health service and making it fit for the future and beyond.”

Manchester Withington MP Jeff Smith said:

“NHS staff in Manchester have worked hard to help shrink the waiting list while seeing a record surge in patients last year. The Labour government is fixing our health service so patients in Manchester can get the care they need more quickly, while building an NHS that is fit for the future”.