Cataract Surgery
Removal of clouded lens, replaced with intra-ocular implant.
Reviewed by PlainNHS ·
Annual NHS volume
425,000
Approx. completed pathways / year
Median wait
10 weeks
Short specialty queue · national median for the Ophthalmology specialty
90th percentile
31 weeks
Very long queue · 9 in 10 patients treated within
Pick a profiled NHS Trust to open a side-by-side wait comparison for cataract surgery against another trust you choose next.
National median for cataract surgery is 10 weeks (90th percentile 31), on about 425,000 completed pathways a year. Among the 9 trusts PlainNHS profiles, medians run from Leeds Teaching Hospitals at 8 weeks to Oxford University Hospitals at 18 weeks. English providers with large lists span about 5 to 18 weeks. Source: NHS England RTT statistics, period RTT-June-2026.
- Among 9 profiled trusts, Leeds Teaching Hospitals is fastest at 8 weeks vs Oxford University Hospitals at 18
- English large-list specialty medians span about 5 to 18 weeks for this queue
- About 425,000 completed pathways a year nationally for cataract surgery
The wait picture
National median for cataract surgery is 10 weeks (90th percentile 31), on about 425,000 completed pathways a year. Among the 9 trusts PlainNHS profiles, medians run from Leeds Teaching Hospitals at 8 weeks to Oxford University Hospitals at 18 weeks. English providers with large lists span about 5 to 18 weeks.
- 10 wks
- National median wait for the Ophthalmology specialty
- 31 wks
- 90th percentile (9 in 10 treated within)
- 8 wks
- Fastest profiled trust (Leeds Teaching Hospitals)
- 18 wks
- Slowest profiled trust (Oxford University Hospitals)
Profiled trusts: 9. Figures are specialty-level RTT queues, not single-operation forecasts. Period RTT-June-2026.
How to read this pathway
Cataract and other ophthalmology pathways are measured on NHS England's consultant-led Referral-to-Treatment (RTT) incomplete-pathway standard (92% within 18 weeks from GP referral). Ophthalmology volumes are high, so small differences in the specialty median still move large patient counts.
Patients have a statutory right to choose their treating Trust at the point of GP referral. NHS England collects these figures by specialty, not by procedure, so the chart and table show the wait for the specialty that performs Cataract Surgery, not for that operation alone.
Ophthalmology Service median at profiled trusts
Sorted ascending. Specialty-level RTT incomplete pathways for the queue this procedure sits in. Period RTT-June-2026.
Share within 18 weeks at profiled trusts
Sorted descending. Same NHS England return as the median chart; useful when choosing between trusts on the same pathway.
Ophthalmology Service waits at profiled trusts
Median and 92nd-percentile waits for the specialty that performs Cataract Surgery, from NHS England's incomplete-pathways return for RTT-June-2026. These are whole-specialty figures covering every condition that specialty treats, so they describe the queue Cataract Surgery sits in rather than that operation on its own. Waits are reported in one-week bands: a median of 12 means the middle patient has waited more than 11 and at most 12 weeks.
| NHS Trust | Region | CQC | Median (wks) | 92nd pct (wks) | Within 18wks | Waiting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust | Yorkshire & Humber | Requires improvement | 8 | 25 | 83.7% | 4,841 |
| The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | North East | Requires improvement | 8 | 31 | 81.3% | 9,778 |
| Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust | London | Good | 9 | 24 | 81.7% | 3,308 |
| Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust | London | Requires improvement | 9 | 31 | 77.6% | 5,236 |
| Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust | North West | 11 | 36 | 69.2% | 11,444 | |
| Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | East of England | Good | 12 | 35 | 69.3% | 4,120 |
| Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust | London | Requires improvement | 12 | 35 | 66.8% | 7,413 |
| Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | London | Requires improvement | 14 | 44 | 64% | 12,742 |
| Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | South East | Requires improvement | 18 | 46 | 51.8% | 5,254 |
Source: NHS England consultant-led RTT waiting times, incomplete pathways, RTT-June-2026. Covers the 9 profiled trusts that report to NHS England; providers outside NHS England's remit, including Scottish health boards, are not in this return.
Find your provider's Ophthalmology Service wait
Every one of the 284 English NHS providers reporting a specialty-level RTT return for Ophthalmology Service in RTT-June-2026, ranked fastest to slowest. Search by name or filter by region to find where your own hospital sits nationally. A wider view than the profiled-trusts table above, which is limited to the trusts this site covers in depth. Only providers with 100 or more incomplete pathways are included.
Showing 6 of 284 providers.
| Rank | Provider | Region | Median (wks) | Within 18wks | Waiting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | SPAMEDICA DERBY | NHS DERBY AND DERBYSHIRE INTEGRATED CARE BOARD | 4 | 95.4% | 436 |
| 34 | SPAMEDICA CHESTERFIELD | NHS DERBY AND DERBYSHIRE INTEGRATED CARE BOARD | 5 | 92.8% | 167 |
| 38 | NEWMEDICA - NORTH DERBYSHIRE - MIDLAND COURT | NHS DERBY AND DERBYSHIRE INTEGRATED CARE BOARD | 6 | 91.9% | 1,207 |
| 61 | PRACTICE PLUS GROUP HOSPITAL - BARLBOROUGH | NHS DERBY AND DERBYSHIRE INTEGRATED CARE BOARD | 6 | 95.3% | 169 |
| 218 | CHESTERFIELD ROYAL HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST | NHS DERBY AND DERBYSHIRE INTEGRATED CARE BOARD | 11 | 71.9% | 2,147 |
| 247 | UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS OF DERBY AND BURTON NHS FOUNDATION TRUST | NHS DERBY AND DERBYSHIRE INTEGRATED CARE BOARD | 13 | 66.6% | 9,621 |
Source: NHS England consultant-led RTT waiting times, incomplete pathways, RTT-June-2026. Most providers below are outside this site's profiled-trust roster and so have no linked page. RTT is collected by specialty, never by individual procedure.
Ophthalmology Service waits by NHS region
The same 284-provider return above, grouped by NHS commissioning region instead of ranked by provider. NHS DERBY AND DERBYSHIRE INTEGRATED CARE BOARD has the fastest typical provider (median of provider medians 6 weeks, 6 providers); NHS STAFFORDSHIRE AND STOKE-ON-TRENT INTEGRATED CARE BOARD the slowest (14 weeks, 5 providers). This describes where providers typically sit, not a single guaranteed wait for every patient in that region.
Source: same NHS England return as the provider search above (RTT-June-2026). Region is the provider's NHS commissioning region, not the patient's home region.
The national queue behind this figure
The national median above (10 weeks) sits behind 622,977 open Ophthalmology Service pathways across every English provider in June 2026, with 73.8% of them within the 18-week standard, 34 weeks marks the slowest 8% (92nd percentile). The profiled trusts above (5–18 weeks) run either side of that national median.
Source: NHS England consultant-led RTT waiting times, national all-provider total (June 2026), the England-wide figure the per-trust breakdown above is drawn from, not a further trust.
Month-on-month specialty queue movement
Across every English provider reporting Ophthalmology Service, the incomplete-pathway total moved from 626,414 in May 2026 to 622,977 in June 2026 (-3,437 pathways). The share within 18 weeks went from 74.1% to 73.8% (-0.3 percentage points) , while the average provider median stayed near 9.1 weeks (was 9.1). Procedures that sit in this specialty share that queue movement; it is not a single-operation forecast.
Source: NHS England consultant-led RTT provider×specialty history (May 2026 → June 2026), England-wide aggregate for this treatment function.
Which providers moved most for Ophthalmology Service?
The England-wide aggregate above blends every provider's queue together, so it can mask an individual trust getting sharply better or worse. Ranking providers with at least 100 incomplete pathways in both May 2026 and June 2026 by the change in their 18-week share shows which named trusts are actually driving that movement.
Most improved
- HENDON HOSPITAL (NHS WEST AND NORTH LONDON INTEGRATED CARE BOARD) +10.5pp (66.5%→77%)
- LINCOLN PRIVATE HOSPITAL (NHS LINCOLNSHIRE INTEGRATED CARE BOARD) +9.7pp (63%→72.7%)
- SPAMEDICA TAUNTON (NHS SOMERSET INTEGRATED CARE BOARD) +7.2pp (79.7%→86.9%)
- OPTEGRA YORKSHIRE EYE HOSPITAL (NHS WEST YORKSHIRE INTEGRATED CARE BOARD) +5.9pp (83.1%→89%)
- NEWMEDICA - CHESHIRE OAKS (NHS CHESHIRE AND MERSEYSIDE INTEGRATED CARE BOARD) +5.6pp (76.5%→82.1%)
Most worsened
- MOUNT STUART HOSPITAL (NHS DEVON INTEGRATED CARE BOARD) -12.1pp (51.4%→39.3%)
- DEEPING SURGICAL (NHS LINCOLNSHIRE INTEGRATED CARE BOARD) -10.4pp (83.5%→73.1%)
- BEACON PARK HOSPITAL (NHS STAFFORDSHIRE AND STOKE-ON-TRENT INTEGRATED CARE BOARD) -10.3pp (53.2%→42.9%)
- NEW HALL HOSPITAL (NHS BATH AND NORTH EAST SOMERSET, SWINDON AND WILTSHIRE INTEGRATED CARE BOARD) -9.8pp (84.3%→74.5%)
- NEWMEDICA - OXFORDSHIRE (NHS THAMES VALLEY INTEGRATED CARE BOARD) -9.6pp (91.2%→81.6%)
Source: NHS England consultant-led RTT provider×specialty history, providers with ≥100 incomplete Ophthalmology Service pathways in both periods shown.
18-week RTT incomplete-pathway standard
NHS England's consultant-led Referral-to-Treatment (RTT) incomplete-pathway standard is that 92% of patients should wait no longer than 18 weeks from GP referral to treatment start. The national specialty median on this page for the Ophthalmology specialty is 10 weeks; the 90th percentile is 31 weeks (period RTT-June-2026).
Share of profiled-trust pathways within 18 weeks
Across the 9 trusts PlainNHS profiles (64,136 people still waiting in the RTT-June-2026 return), a waiting-list-weighted 70.7% of pathways were within 18 weeks. That is a roll-up of the per-trust shares in the chart above, not a second NHS England figure.
Choosing an ophthalmology trust at referral
Ophthalmology pathways such as cataract surgery are referred through the NHS e-Referral Service. At the point of GP referral you can ask to see ophthalmology providers. PlainNHS does not book appointments; it publishes the specialty waits from NHS England so you can compare listed trusts before the referral is locked in.
Read with this pathway
- Compare two trusts - Side-by-side RTT waits in Ophthalmology
- 18-week RTT pathway guide - The incomplete-pathway rule against Ophthalmology lists
- Choose and Book guide - What the elective referral entitlement covers
- NHS Trust index - CQC ratings alongside wait figures
- RTT key findings - Specialty incomplete-pathway board
Monthly RTT release cadence
The figures on this page refresh when PlainNHS ingests the next NHS England consultant-led RTT release for Ophthalmology. The data vintage in the hero and the period labels on the charts are the ones currently on file (RTT-June-2026).
Where to see what moved
- /changes - month-on-month movements across profiled trusts
- RTT changes RSS - machine-readable release diffs
- Procedure wait variation research - how spreads differ across pathways
- Open datasets - downloadable tables matching the DB
What to do with this pathway
Use the published waits for Cataract Surgery before you contact your GP or the trust's PALS.
- National median wait is 10 weeks (90th percentile 31 weeks on the June 2026 return). See Leeds profile
- Put two trusts on the same monthly RTT or DM01 return side by side. Compare trusts
- Read how the 18-week clock and incomplete-pathway counts are defined. RTT guide
Statistical waiting times only, not medical advice or a prediction for your case.
Source: NHS England Referral to Treatment (RTT) waiting times · RTT-June-2026
Spotted a figure that looks wrong? Report a correction.
PlainNHS procedure pages are rendered directly from NHS England RTT and diagnostic (DM01) releases, no number is typed in by an editor. Median and provider waits for Cataract Surgery come from the live specialty or diagnostic return on file. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error on this page. Data current as of RTT-June-2026. Figures here are for context and comparison; clinical pathway decisions belong with your GP, NHS 111, or the treating Trust.