Combined Performance Summary February/March 2018

Today, NHS England published its Combined Performance Summary, which provides data on key performance measures for February and March of this year. Here we show some of these statistics and how they compare with previous years.

For interactive charts showing the quality of health and social care over time, please refer to our 300+ indicators.

The Nuffield Trust has issued a statement about today's figures which can be read here. The Health Foundation's comment can be read here.

Key points:

In March 2018, the percentage of people spending more than four hours in A&E from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge reached 15.4%. This is the worst level since data collection began.
Total A&E attendances reached 2.05 million in March 2018, which is 1.6% higher than the same month last year.
Emergency admissions via A&E have been increasing year on year, reaching over 391,000 in March 2018.
Trolley waits have worsened, with over 76,000 patients spending more than four hours from decision to admit to admission in March 2018. This is 77% higher than for the same month last year, and over three times higher than it was five years ago.
Only five out of 137 major A&E departments (Type 1) met the four-hour A&E target in March 2018.
The total number of people waiting for a planned hospital admission surpassed 4 million in February 2018.
The proportion of people waiting over 18 weeks for elective admission reached 12.1% in February 2018, which is the highest proportion since March 2009.
The six-week diagnostics waiting time target has not been met since November 2013.
The total number of delayed transfer of care days was 139,889 in February 2018, which is 25% higher than in February 2017.
Performance against the cancer waiting time target has worsened, with 19%of patients waiting over 62 days from an urgent GP referral to their first treatment for cancer in February 2018. This is a slight improvement on February last year, but is 4.5% higher than it was five years ago.