The following hospital trusts have worked with the NHS nationally to agree how they will safely test the elective care proposals, and will begin the first phase of the trial from early August:

• Barts Health
• Calderdale and Huddersfield
• East Lancashire Hospitals
• Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children
• Harrogate and District
• Milton Keynes University Hospital
• Northampton General Hospital
• Surrey and Sussex Healthcare
• Taunton and Somerset
• The Walton Centre
• University Hospitals Bristol
• University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire

These trusts will be testing the use of an average (mean) wait measure for people on the waiting list as a potential alternative to a threshold target, currently set at 18-weeks, to see whether keeping the focus on patients at all stages of their pathway can help to reduce long waits.

The testing will also focus on measuring care in a way that supports and stimulates improved performance in a clinically safe way, by looking at referral to diagnosis and diagnosis to treatment.