More than half of NHS integrated care boards in England are enforcing minimum waiting times of up to 16 weeks for procedures such as hip, knee and cataract surgery, according to a British Medical Journal investigation, even when hospitals have the capacity to treat patients sooner. Doctors' leaders have criticised the practice, warning it leaves patients in unnecessary pain for months and increases pressure on GPs, who must care for people while they wait, purely to help the NHS manage costs and demand.

The BMJ obtained data via Freedom of Information requests from 35 of England's 36 integrated care boards, finding that 17 had imposed minimum waits of between 12 and 16 weeks for key procedures. Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, and West Yorkshire have set a blanket 16-week minimum wait for all routine care, while other areas including Birmingham, Dorset, Somerset and Humber and North Yorkshire have adopted waits of 14 to 16 weeks under similar "planning assumptions". Tim Lane of the Royal College of Surgeons said such delays can worsen conditions and create a "postcode lottery", calling instead for greater capital investment and better use of existing NHS capacity, while GP leaders said the waits were difficult to justify.