NHS England · A&E attendances and emergency admissions: monthly timeseries

Twelve-hour trolley waits

July 2026 Revised

47,438patients

Twelve-hour trolley waits were 47,438 patients in July 2026, up 33.8% (11,971) from 35,467 in July 2025.

▲ 33.8% · +11,971 against July 2025 (year on year)

NHS England count
July 2026
published 13 August 2026
Monthly A&E timeseries, England activity
row “2026-07-01”
column “Number of patients spending >12 hours from decision to admit to admission”
cell value 47438

The series is rising. Rule: up 33.8% from July 2025 to July 2026.

August 2010 to July 2026

Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestDashed line: change in coverage or methodShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value

What this measures

The number of patients in England who waited more than twelve hours from the decision to admit them to actually being admitted, in the month. This is the measure often called a trolley wait.

What this doesn’t measure

Time spent in A&E before the decision to admit, which is often long and is measured separately (total time in A&E over twelve hours is a much larger number published in the ECDS supplementary series).

Important caveat

England only, and provider-based: figures count activity at English NHS and reporting independent providers, not where patients live. From November 2010 to May 2015 the monthly figures are NHS England's apportionment of weekly collections into calendar months (the raw values carry decimal fractions), marked as a break. Activity from August 2020 includes booked appointments. Four-hour performance between May 2019 and May 2023 excludes fourteen trusts that field-tested new standards. Type 3 attendances between August 2022 and February 2023 are undercounted because of a cyber-attack on several providers. None of these gaps is filled in or estimated here.

When the way this was measured changed

A series can move because the thing being measured changed, or because the way of measuring it changed. Each change below is marked on the chart, and says what the figures meant on either side of it.

June 2015 · methodology change

Before: Estimated by apportioning published weekly collections into calendar months.
After: Collected and published monthly.

NHS England collected A&E data weekly until May 2015 and monthly from June 2015; earlier months are its own apportionment of weeks into calendar months.

Revision history

No period of this series has been revised since it was first ingested here. Revisions are recorded automatically when a later release publishes a different figure for the same period.

Source

Publisher: NHS England
Publication: A&E attendances and emergency admissions: monthly timeseries
Release: July 2026, published 13 August 2026
Source file: ae-monthly.xls
File SHA-256: 3a95300868661e392dfad3ce678f381d83e173774a255837f2ecc49eccece4b9
Retrieved: 4 September 2026
Sheet: Activity
Table: Monthly A&E timeseries, England activity
Row: 2026-07-01
Column: Number of patients spending >12 hours from decision to admit to admission
Cell value: 47438
Geography: E92000001
Unit: patients
API: /api/metrics/ae_over_12_hour_waits · /series · /vintages

Related metrics

A&E four-hour standard

Government periods

Change during each government, from the level inherited to the last complete period before it left office. Describes the period; does not attribute cause.

Labour 2024–	38,106June 2024	47,438July 2026	↑ 24.5%
Conservative 2019–2024	1,111November 2019	38,106June 2024	↑ 3,329.9%
Conservative 2017–2019	115May 2017	1,111November 2019	↑ 866.1%
Conservative 2015–2017	58April 2015	115May 2017	↑ 98.3%

Full comparison with chart

Release: July 2026 · publication page
Last updated: 13 August 2026
Next release expected: Not yet announced (estimated from the usual cadence)