NHS activity and performance summary: December 2019 and January 2020

Unscheduled care

Average daily A&E attendances decreased from the previous month. The percentage of patients spending less than 4 hours in A&E increased from the previous month. The number of patients spending more than 12 hours in A&E was the highest on record.

The overall average number of daily calls to the ambulance service and the average daily number of the most serious calls (‘red’) decreased in January 2020. The percentage of red calls receiving a response within 8 minutes increased and was above the 65% target for the first time since October 2019.

The number of delayed transfers of care decreased in January 2020.

Scheduled care

The number of patients waiting longer than the target time increased for diagnostic tests but decreased for therapy services in December 2019. Average waiting times for both diagnostic tests and therapy services increased.

Referral to treatment performance decreased since last month. The percentage of patients waiting less than 26 weeks decreased (the lowest since December 2015) and the number waiting longer than 36 weeks increased (the highest since January 2016). The average time waiting for treatment increased from last month.

Over the year to December 2019, the number of patients newly diagnosed with cancer who have started treatment via the urgent suspected cancer route has increased. However, the number starting treatment not via the urgent suspected cancer route has decreased. Although the target was missed for both those treated via the urgent and not via the urgent route, the percentage of patients treated within the target time increased for both routes since the previous month. Experimental statistics for the single cancer pathway are also included in this release.