The performance of hospitals across the UK has slumped with targets for cancer, A&E and planned operations now being missed en masse, BBC research shows.
Nationally England, Wales and Northern Ireland have not hit one of their three key targets for 18 months.
Only Scotland has had any success in the past 12 months – hitting its A&E target three times.
Ministers accepted growing demand had left the NHS struggling to keep up as doctors warned patients were suffering.
The findings are being revealed as the BBC launches its online NHS Tracker project, which allows people to see how their local service is performing on three key waiting time targets:
- Four-hour A&E waits
- 62-day cancer care
- Planned operations and treatment
The BBC has looked at performance nationally as well as locally across the 135 hospital trusts in England and 26 health boards in the rest of the UK.
Locally there is just one service in the whole of the UK – run by Luton and Dunstable NHS Trust – which has managed to hit all three targets each time over the past 12 months.
Hospital staff the BBC has talked to have described how shortages of doctors and nurses, a lack of money and inadequate room in A&E departments in particular was making it difficult, sometimes impossible, to see patients quickly enough.
Article from BBC news, 18 September 2017