Welcome to HospitalWaits Insights

When we launched HospitalWaits.co.uk on 28 April 2026, we made one promise: every figure on the site is reproducible from public NHS data, and every claim links to its source.

This Insights section is where I explain what the data means.

Why analysis, not just data?

NHS waiting-time data is — quietly — one of the most powerful patient-information assets the United Kingdom has. Every month, NHS England publishes a 80-megabyte CSV containing the full picture of who's waiting, where, for what, and how long. It's the same dataset used by your local Trust's board, by NHS England's national operations team, by parliamentarians in PMQs, and by any journalist writing a serious NHS story.

But raw data isn't insight. A patient who goes to NHS Digital's RTT page sees columns labelled non-admitted-incomplete-pathways-mean-weeks and reasonably gives up. A journalist who downloads the CSV finds 49,667 rows of trust-by-specialty figures and reasonably writes about something else.

That's the gap this section tries to fill: what the data actually says, in plain English, with the working shown.

What you'll find here

I'll write four kinds of articles:

• NHS vs Private — when private surgery makes sense (and when it doesn't); what it really costs; how Right to Choose compares as a cheaper alternative.
• Right to Choose — your legal NHS entitlement, the specific words to use with your GP, what to do if you hit pushback.
• Data deep dives — what the latest monthly RTT release means; trends nobody is talking about; regional patterns.
• A doctor's perspective — what I think as both a working NHS doctor and a data scientist.

Every article will:

• Cite NHS sources for every claim
• Be reviewed by me before publishing
• Be open to correction — if I get something wrong, I'll fix it visibly

What I'm not going to do

I'm not going to give you medical advice. I'm an NHS doctor; I'm not your doctor. Anything that looks like a clinical recommendation in these articles is general information — your GP, your consultant, your specialist nurse are the people who should help with your specific situation.

I'm also not going to recommend any private hospital or insurer over another. Where this site partners commercially with private providers (it will, from late 2026), those relationships will be loudly disclosed and they will not influence the analysis.

Stay in the loop

If you'd like new articles emailed to you, the subscribe form on the HospitalWaits homepage collects them. No spam, no algorithmic feed, just one email when something useful drops.

Welcome.