Updated 12 November 2026.
At the end of September 2026, six NHS trusts serving Greater Manchester had 48,820 open trauma and orthopaedic referral pathways. That was 0.9% higher than in August and 2.8% lower than in September 2025. Across England, the orthopaedic waiting list fell 1.6% over the month and 3.6% year on year.
How the waiting list changed
| Measure | Six Greater Manchester trusts | England |
|---|---|---|
| September 2025 | 50,222 | 860,865 |
| August 2026 | 48,375 | 843,419 |
| September 2026 | 48,820 | 830,089 |
| Month-on-month change | +0.9% | −1.6% |
| Year-on-year change | −2.8% | −3.6% |
The six trusts had 445 more open pathways than in August. Northern Care Alliance’s list grew by 552, while the other five trusts’ lists fell by a combined 107. Compared with September 2025, the combined list was smaller by 1,402 pathways.
How Greater Manchester compared with England
In September 2026, 58.2% of open pathways across the six trusts had been waiting 18 weeks or less, compared with 61.4% for England. In August, the figures were 58.6% and 61.1% respectively. A year earlier, they were 55.0% across the six trusts and 59.7% for England.
Across the six trusts, 1,265 pathways had been waiting more than 52 weeks, up from 1,185 in August and down from 1,896 a year earlier. Northern Care Alliance accounted for 781 of September’s long waits. The September figures represented 2.6% of open pathways across the six trusts and 2.4% across England, where 19,769 pathways had been waiting more than 52 weeks.
September 2026 by NHS trust
| NHS trust | Open pathways | 18 weeks or less | Over 52 weeks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bolton | 2,345 | 55.9% | 20 |
| Manchester University | 11,829 | 60.2% | 182 |
| Northern Care Alliance | 15,336 | 53.1% | 781 |
| Stockport | 6,375 | 58.2% | 37 |
| Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care | 3,349 | 66.5% | 0 |
| Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals | 9,586 | 61.7% | 245 |
What these figures cover
These figures count consultant-led trauma and orthopaedic referrals where treatment had yet to start at the end of the reporting month. One person can have more than one open pathway. The specialty includes a range of conditions and treatments, so the figures cannot tell you how long you will wait for a specific operation such as a hip or knee replacement.
Transform Medical summed the six trusts’ figures from NHS England’s incomplete-pathways provider tables and used the national row in the incomplete-pathways commissioner tables for the England comparison. Both use the trauma and orthopaedic service code C_110. The local figures describe activity at these six trusts, including referrals from outside Greater Manchester. September 2025 uses NHS England’s revised release.
NHS England sources — September 2026 provider table, September 2026 England table, August 2026 tables and revised September 2025 tables.