Latest statistics show the waiting list decreased to 7.25m, dropping by 43,666 compared to the previous month, and down by over 370,000 (374,083) since June 2024.

Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘After years of rising waiting times, patients are finally starting to see things move in the right direction – with waiting lists at their lowest level for almost three years and more people getting treated within 18 weeks.

‘Despite record demand this winter, A&E and ambulance services improved - meaning patients are getting help faster when they need it most, thanks to the hard work of NHS staff, better planning and modernisation.

‘But we won't take our foot off the gas. We'll keep cutting waiting times, backing NHS staff and making sure patients get the high-quality care they deserve.'

Over 9m (9,110 591) people attended A&E between November and February for the first time in NHS history with almost 130,000 more patients handed over by ambulances compared with winter three years ago.

Waiting times for patients this winter were the shortest in four years. The number of patients attending A&E who were admitted, transferred, or discharged within four hours of arrival at emergency departments was at its highest rate  (73.6%) since 21/22, when it was 73.8%.

While the number of ambulance call outs were the highest on record, topping 3.2m (3,223,778), figures show almost 130,000 more handovers at A&E where the handover time was known (1,640,783) compared with two years ago (1,511,758).

Despite high 999 demand, ambulance responded faster to the most serious call outs, including for strokes and heart attacks, than they have for half a decade (20/21) - with average Cat 2 ambulance waits down to 32:29.

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Nuffield Trust deputy director of research, Sarah Scobie, said: ‘Seeing the waiting list fall substantially for a few months in a row is a relief, but the NHS is still some way off hitting the March goal of 65% of patients treated within 18 weeks.'

Scobie said ‘sporadic improvements' were not all about more care delivery, highlighting another uptick in ‘unreported removals', which includes tidying up the data as much as possible by removing patients who don't need to be on the list anymore.

She added: ‘The chances of the NHS meeting the target for only 22% of patients to wait more than four hours in A&E are now vanishingly small. There has been barely any progress on four hour waits compared with this time last year, and with the focus on this target, we must not lose sight of the horrendously long waits of over 12 hours which tens of thousands of patients are still facing every month.'

Tim Gardner, assistant director of policy at The Health Foundation, said: ‘While the Government is making steady progress against its headline pledge to reduce routine hospital waits, the ongoing crisis in A&E highlights the risks of being too narrowly focused on one headline target.  

‘Achieving lasting improvements will require a concerted focus on addressing the root causes of delays, and a system-wide approach to recovery that prioritises investment, workforce resilience and long-term planning.'

Sarah Woolnough, chief executive at The King's Fund, said: ‘It's promising to see waiting lists at the lowest they've been in nearly three years, as well as emergency response times nearly under the 30-minute target for the year 2025/2026 and NHS leaders and staff deserve credit for this.

‘The challenge now will be maintaining this momentum when individual NHS organisations are operating under extremely tight spending envelopes.'