THOUSANDS of patients in the North West are benefitting from faster treatment times after 10 regional hospital trusts saw significant reductions in waiting lists through the Further Faster 20 (FF20) programme.

The programme has seen specialist NHS teams work alongside local staff to transform how planned operations and outpatient appointments are delivered.

North West trusts have been at the forefront of introducing new approaches to care. This includes include High Flow Theatre Lists where experts perform surgery with theatres operating continuously, allowing surgeons to complete planned operations quicker.

Simplifying outpatient processes has also played a major role. Trusts cut unnecessary appointments by sending patients “straight to test” rather than multiple clinic visits.

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust has been noted for cutting wasted slots by 20% through better capacity management, while East Lancashire NHS Trust deployed AI-powered dictation for pre-operative assessments, boosting nurse productivity by 14%.

The health service will now take learnings from the programme and use these to spread best practice across the NHS.

Dr Michael Gregory, Regional Medical Director for NHS England in the North West, said, “With thanks to our NHS staff and hospital trusts in the North West, there are thousands of patients across the region who are now able to benefit from faster treatment. The Further Faster 20 programme has been used at 10 of our trusts which means patients are being seen quicker.

“Along with investments and new ways of working, we’re hoping to improve the NHS. Long waits can be very difficult for patients, and the NHS across the region is focused on improving access to planned care while ensuring services are safe, effective and patient-centred.”

The findings of the FF20 report comes as the government marks one year since the launch of the Elective Reform Plan in January 2025, a national plan which sets out how the government will return the health service its target of ensuring 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks for from referral to treatment by the end of the parliament.

Since July 2024, the national waiting list is down by more than 225,000 despite 28.4 million referrals, making a huge difference to people’s lives up and down the country.

November also saw the second biggest drop in the waiting list for 15 years outside of the early days of the pandemic, as new data today shows staff faced record demand in 2025. The waiting list fell by more than 86,000 in November to 7.31 million.

The progress came despite the NHS’s busiest ever year, with 27.8 million A&E attendances in 2025 – over 367,000 up on 2024, with 2.33 million attendances in December alone.

The improvements relate to non-emergency treatment such as hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery and other planned operations known as elective care. This is the type of care many patients may be waiting months and sometimes years to receive.

Examples of good practice in the North West

The North West has seen the opening of new specialist surgical hubs, more scans and tests outside busy hospitals, and routine operations better protected from last-minute cancellation due to emergency pressures. This means fewer cancelled operations, speedy diagnoses and shorter waits for treatment.

Examples of how NHS organisations across the North West are supporting elective recovery include a new £15 million Surgical Hub at Westmorland General Hospital, run by University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust. The hub has doubled theatre capacity, with two new and three refurbished operating theatres that are helping reduce cancellations and improve waiting times for planned surgery.

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is using the da Vinci Xi robotic-assisted system at Chorley and South Ribble Hospital that enables advanced minimally-invasive surgery using instruments and a camera attached to four arms. The technology supports faster recovery and patient discharges the following day, in contrast to the three to four days typically required for open surgery.

In Cheshire and Merseyside, Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has opened a £11 million diagnostic centre at Halton Hospital, providing MRI and CT services for more than 30,000 patients a year. The purpose-built facility is the final part of a three-phase multi-million Community Diagnostics Centre (CDC) programme. Since the programme began, the Trust has delivered over 90,000 additional diagnostic tests, supporting faster diagnosis and treatment.

NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group’s Broadgreen Hospital’s dermatology team pioneered the use of AI to early detect skin cancer. The technology analyses high-resolution images of moles and lesions to assess cancer risk, and is being used across Merseyside for faster diagnosis and timely treatment.

The North West Children’s Cancer Operational Delivery Network and Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust launched a new model of children’s cancer treatment, bringing chemotherapy and other care directly into patients’ homes.

Across Greater Manchester, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust’s Trafford Elective Surgical Hub is providing protected capacity for routine procedures such as hip and knee replacements, helping reduce cancellations caused by emergency pressures.

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust has also launched a new Surgical Triage Unit which streamlines surgical care and improves patient flow in the hospital. By combining the Same Day Emergency Care and the Surgical Assessment Unit functions, the Trust has been able to deliver faster admissions when needed, better continuity of care, and increased capacity for emergency and day-case surgery in line with national guidance.

Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust has eliminated all waits of over 52 weeks for elective treatment and diagnostics, alongside sustained improvement in referral-to-treatment performance, reflecting continued focus on productivity and reducing long waits for patients.