NHS data shows Chesterfield hospital has England's longest surgery waiting times
New analysis of NHS England data shows that patients at Chesterfield Royal Hospital are enduring some of the longest waits for surgery anywhere in the country, but bosses say they are working to improve the situation.
The figures for October 2025 show that for general surgery – a broad category encompassing many different procedures – patients at CRH faced waits of up to 57.7 weeks between referral and treatment in 92 out of 100 cases, rising to 59 weeks in the November dataset.
By comparison, the best performing trust in that category is Wirral University Teaching Hospital, where the majority of patients were treated within 15 weeks.
Not only does CRH report the longest period for general surgery of any trust in England, but it was also in the bottom five for any kind of operation at all in October.
According to analysts for WeCovr, a website dealing in products including private health insurance, the longest wait in the country was 64.7 weeks for ear, nose and throat procedures at Medway NHS Foundation Trust in Kent.
A spokesperson for WeCovr said: “General surgery is the bread and butter of the NHS, yet we are seeing extreme variances in performance. For a patient in Chesterfield, a 58-week wait effectively writes off a year of active life.
“The fact that Wirral is delivering the same care in 15 weeks proves that this delay is not inevitable.”
Closer examination of the data suggests many patients are being seen more quickly at Chesterfield.
In November, 42.7 per cent of general surgery cases were dealt with within 18 weeks, but that was well short of the NHS operational standard of 92 per cent and will include a significant number of emergency operations.
Across all departments at CRH, in 92 out of 100 cases the patient had been waiting less than 46 weeks to start treatment, with more than half of all cases waiting less than 16 weeks.
Altogether there were 30,159 cases where a patient was currently waiting to begin treatment in November.
Other departments commonly reporting wait times of 40 weeks or more included: urology; ear, nose and throat; trauma and orthopaedics; oral surgery; gastroenterology; dermatology; rheumatology; gynaecology; and paediatrics.
Dr Hal Spencer, Chief Executive said: “We acknowledge that patients may be waiting longer for care or planned operations and recognise that this is understandably difficult for anyone with a condition that is causing them pain or disruption to their daily lives.
"We continue to prioritise people with the highest clinical need and will continue to do all we can to treat people as quickly as possible and reduce waiting times. We continue to work to challenge performance internally through daily reviews, and, for areas where waits are longest, have insourced support to ensure our patients receive the timeliest care. We thank our community for their patience and support.”
WeCovr produced the report in order to highlight its new NHS Waitlist Search Engine, which allows the public to search their specific local hospital and department, as patients have a legal right to request a transfer or referral to faster-performing trusts.
The spokesperson said: “The data proves that the 'National' Health Service is fragmenting into a series of local crises. It is unacceptable that a patient in Essex waits 15 months for a surgery that a patient in Cornwall can access in ten weeks.
“We are seeing a 'hidden backlog' in areas like ENT and Oral Surgery—specialties that don't grab headlines but have a devastating impact on quality of life, particularly for children. The numbers suggest that for many in the South East and North West, the NHS 'guarantee' of treatment within 18 weeks has effectively ceased to exist.”
For more details, go to wecovr.com/calculators/nhs-wait-vs-private-cost-map/.
For the full underlying data, see england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/rtt-waiting-times/rtt-data-2025-26.