Is the plan for 18-week NHS waiting times realistic?

The government’s elective care reform plan pledges to meet the NHS standard that 92% of patients should wait no longer than 18 weeks for treatment by the end of the parliament. This compares with current performance of just 59%. This analysis estimates that this will require the number of people being removed from the waiting list to increase from 20.8 million a year in July 2024 to 23.5 million a year in July 2029. This corresponds to around 500,000 extra treatments in the first year, rising to 2.6 million extra treatments in the final year, an annual increase of 2.4%.