For the first time, NHS league tables will rank every trust in England by patient care, waiting times, and feedback
A significant shake-up of the NHS is underway. Today, the government has announced new league tables that will publicly rank every trust in England, covering A&E waits, surgery backlogs, mental health services, and patient satisfaction. The first will be live tomorrow, and the move promises to expose the best and worst performers in unprecedented detail.
Where will your local trust rank in the NHS league table?
In a striking move, every trust in England will now be ranked quarterly against clear and consistent standards, and the system will operate in a league table format, ranking each local trust against one another.
The NHS league tables will provide the public with unprecedented insight into their local trust, marking a new era in transparency and accountability within the NHS. The new system aims to deliver the government’s promise to drive up standards, tackle variation in care, and ensure people get high-quality services.
The government has confirmed that top-performing trusts on the league table will be rewarded with greater autonomy, including the ability to reinvest surplus budgets into frontline improvements such as new diagnostic equipment and hospital upgrades.
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: “We must be honest about the state of the NHS to fix it. Patients and taxpayers have to know how their local NHS services are doing compared to the rest of the country.
These league tables will identify where urgent support is needed and allow high-performing areas to share best practices with others, taking the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS.
Patients know when local services aren’t up to scratch, and they want to see an end to the postcode lottery – that’s what this government is doing. We’re combining the extra £26 billion investment each year with tough reforms to get value for money, with every pound helping to cut waiting times for patients.”
Incentivising NHS care
Local trusts will be scored across four performance segments, with the first segment representing the best-performing areas and the fourth segment indicating the most challenging areas. There will be separate league tables for acute, non-acute, and ambulance trusts.
Trusts that rank in the middle of the league table will be encouraged to learn from top performers to help them improve on their rankings.
In 2026, a new wave of Foundation Trusts will be introduced, enabling the best-performing trusts to tailor services more closely to local needs.
Local NHS trusts that are struggling will receive enhanced support to drive improvement, with senior leaders held accountable through performance-linked pay. The best NHS leaders will be offered higher pay to take on the most demanding jobs, sending them into challenged services and turning them around.
This aims to tackle the longstanding issue of postcode lottery in care, putting an end to it and ensuring patients receive timely and high-quality care, regardless of where they live. Patient feedback will also play a crucial role in shaping how local trusts are ranked in the NHS league tables.
The NHS league tables will expand to Integrated Care Boards in summer 2026.
Sir Jim Mackey, Chief Executive of NHS England, said: “NHS staff across the country work flat out to deliver the highest standard of care to their patients, and every day we see or hear fantastic examples of this, but we still have far too much unwarranted local variation in performance.
Letting patients and the public access more data will help to drive improvement even faster by supporting them to identify where they should demand even better from their NHS and by putting more power in their hands to make informed decisions on their choice of provider.
The data also supports local NHS Trust Boards and leadership teams to more easily identify the highest performing services in the NHS and adapt how they deliver care to drive improvement even faster going forward.”
