NHS trusts across the UK publish live waiting times for their A&E departments, urgent treatment centres and minor injuries units. WaitSmart has been collecting those figures around the clock since early 2026, and the index distils them into a single number for the whole country. It is the average of the most recent wait published by each department in the past hour, recalculated every five minutes, so it rises and falls through the day exactly as the pressure on urgent care does.
Because we keep every reading, the index comes with its own context. The banding above compares this moment with every hour of the previous 90 days, which is what lets us say whether tonight is genuinely exceptional or just a normal winter evening. No official body publishes a live national measure like this; the NHS's own statistics appear monthly and several weeks in arrears. The index is not a clinical measure and individual hospitals can be far above or below it, so anyone who actually needs care should check their nearest department or call 111.