NHS waiting times at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust fall short of Goverment targets - here's by how much

Figures obtained by NHS England show that, at the end of January 2025, there were 44,411 cases where the patient was waiting to start treatment. However, only 48.2% had been waiting within 18 months.

This is well short of the Government’s ambitious target of 92% which it hopes to reach by the end of Parliament in 2029.

However, Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) believes that target is “unlikely” after its researchers modelled a number of different scenarios.

It estimated that if the NHS increases treatment volume by 3.5% per year without other changes, some 74% of patients would be waiting 18 weeks by mid-2029, below the 92% target.

According to the IFS, treatment volume would have to grow by 4.9% per year, in the absence of other changes, to meet the goal, which it claims would be double the average growth rate of the 2010s.

Other figures for the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) show that, half of the cases had been waiting less than 19 weeks, with 92 out of 100 been waiting less than 49 weeks.

Information has also been published for where the patient completed their pathway and started treatment during January 2025.

For treatment that involved admission to hospital. e.g. inpatient appointments:

In 2,399, the patient started admitted treatment.

In half of these cases, the patient started treatment within 17 weeks

In 19 out of 20 cases, the patient started treatment within 68 weeks

For treatment that did not involve admission to hospitak, e.g. outpatient appointments:

In 7,727 cases, the patient had started non-admitted treatment

In half of these cases, the patient had started treatment within 11 weeks

In 19 out of 20 cases, the patient had started treatment within 62 weeks

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust reacts to NHS figures

Ned Hobbs, chief operating officer at SaTH, said: “Our teams are working incredibly hard to reduce waiting times and we are making good progress with the opening of our new Planned Care Hub last year, restoration of orthopaedic surgery and increasing our appointments.

“We are on track to have no 65-week waits by April, which is a significant reduction from last year. We recognise that this is still not where we want to be and some patients are waiting longer than we want them to, which can impact their health and wellbeing.

“Our teams are committed to improving care for our patients and we are already making good progress to reduce 52 week waits through our planned care transformation work. We won’t stop until we fully restore our planned care services to deliver the NHS Constitution and offer our communities the services they deserve.”