Why I built CheckWaitingTimes

One day, without warning, my blood pressure spiked, and I needed to decide quickly which hospital to go to.

I teach first aid for a living. I run Amber Training, a London company that trains workplace teams to stay calm and act when someone is unwell. And yet, phone in hand, I searched Google and got pages of results, maps that disagreed with each other, and nothing that told me which hospital I should go to.

I was fine in the end. But the question stayed with me: if I struggled, what about everyone without my training?

So I started digging. It turns out the answers already exist. The NHS publishes how long people wait at every hospital in England, every month. A handful of hospitals publish their A&E waits live. It's all there, spread across spreadsheets, trust websites and statistical releases that nobody reads under pressure.

CheckWaitingTimes brings it into one place and puts the answer first:

• 191 A&E departments and 234 urgent treatment centres, minor injury units and walk-in centres, with live waits from the 11 hospital trusts that publish them;
• waiting times for planned treatment at 533 hospitals and providers, so you can choose where to be referred;
• what paying privately costs, if you want to compare.

A few things I hold to

• "Live" means live. If a hospital doesn't publish a live wait, I show last month's figure and say so.
• Every figure shows its date and its source, mostly NHS England's own statistics. How I get the data.
• No sponsored listings and no paid placements. No hospital can pay to appear higher.
• I never tell you which option is right. I show you the facts, and the choice is yours and your GP's.

What this site is not: it isn't medical advice, and it isn't a substitute for 999 or NHS 111. It shows past waits, not promises. It covers England only. If something looks wrong, email me at joey@ambertraining.co.uk and I'll check it.

Next time you need a hospital, start with your postcode on the home page.

In a life-threatening emergency, call 999. If you're not sure where to go, NHS 111 can help, online or by phone.