NHS Activity Tracker: June

On the second Thursday of the month (or the third if there are bank holidays), NHS England publish data relating to demand, activity, waiting times and national performance against constitutional standards and recovery targets across the secondary care sector. Each month, we'll take a more detailed look at national and trust level data across the acute, ambulance, community and mental health sectors. 

This data release shows high levels of demand across acute, community, mental health and ambulance services. For example, there were 2.46 million A&E attendances in May which is the busiest month on record (meaning that A&E departments have seen two record-breaking months for demand in 2026 so far), there were 1.22 million people waiting for community services in April, which is the highest month on record, and there were 832,089 ambulance incidents this month, which is the busiest May on record.  

Whilst the sector has seen a great deal of progress recently, this was not maintained across all metrics. For example, whilst the elective care waiting list had decreased to 7.11 million in March (the lowest in over three years), it has increased again to 7.22 million (an increase of 1.6%). In addition, when looking at ambulance response times, April saw the fastest category 2 response times in five years (24 minutes and 27 seconds). However, the latest data shows that it increased to 29 minutes and 13 seconds in May.  

Please note that these are national averages and there is considerable regional variation in these metrics. 

Key points

• A&E: There were 2.46 million A&E attendances in May, which is the busiest month on record. This means that A&E departments have seen two record-breaking months for demand in 2026 so far. 
  
  
• Cancer: No cancer waiting time targets were met this month. Performance against the 28-day standard dropped to 75.9% (the target is 80%). The 31-day target is 96%, but this figure for 91.5% for the month, and the 62-day target is 85% and the figure was 70.0%. 
  
  
• Diagnostics: The diagnostic waiting list reached 1.95 million, which is the highest figure since records began. 2.50 million diagnostic tests and procedures were carried out.
  
  
• Elective waiting list: The size of the elective waiting list increased to 7.22 million in April, form 7.11 million in March. 65.0% of cases were waiting for less than 18 weeks, meeting the target of 65% for the second month in a row. Demand for elective care, measured by new cases added to the list (1.80 million cases) saw the largest number of new cases added in an April on record. 
  
  
• Ambulance: There were 832,089 ambulance incidents this month. This is the highest figure for May since records began. The response time for category 1 calls was seven minutes and 52 seconds, and for category 2 calls it was 29 minutes and 13 seconds.
  
  
• Community: 1.22 million people were waiting for community services in April, which is the highest figure on record. There were also 1.87 million referrals to community services in March which is the busiest March on record.
  
  
• Mental health: 2.26m people had an open referral to MH services which is the highest figure on record, and 892,559 CYP accessed mental health services in April, also the highest figure on record.