NHS waiting times - 18 weeks referral to treatment
Quarter ending 30 September 2024

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) reports on completed patient pathways that are fully measurable against the 18 weeks Referral to Treatment (RTT) standard (90% of patients being treated within 18 weeks of referral) up to 30 September 2024. A fully measurable patient pathway refers to patient journeys where it has been possible for the NHS Board treating the patient to link all stages of the patient's journey and measure the time from the initial referral to the start of treatment.

Please note that a patient may be on more than one pathway for treatment at the same time and so the number of completed journeys reported is not the same as the number of individual patients treated.

Main points

During the quarter ending 30 September 2024:

• 282,370 patient pathways were completed under this standard when the patient involved either received the results of a diagnostic test, was seen at an outpatient appointment clinic, or was admitted for treatment as an inpatient or day case. The number of completed patient pathways was 3.4% (+9,335) higher than the quarter ending 30 September 2023, but remains 9.8% lower than the same quarter in 2019 (313,172) which was prior to COVID-19 emergency measures being introduced.
• There was variation at NHS board level in the number of completed pathways reported over the last year. When comparing to quarter ending 30 September 2023, the largest percentage increases were in NHS Orkney (+27.4%, +379), NHS Shetland (+19.6%, +219), NHS Fife (+15.3%, +2,741), and NHS Highland (+14.5%, +3,326). In contrast, decreases were seen in NHS Western Isles (-6.9%, -117), NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde (-5.5%, -4,195), and NHS Dumfries & Galloway (-0.5%, -29).
• Despite an overall slight decrease in activity this quarter compared to the previous quarter, there was monthly variation. August 2024 saw the highest activity this quarter at 95,653 completed patient journeys, a 2.9% increase (+2,684) from July 2024. This was followed by a corresponding decrease (-2.0%, -1,905) in September 2024.
• Of all pathways completed, 84.9% (239,848) were fully measurable against the 18-week standard. 67.6% (162,121) of these pathways were completed within 18 weeks of referral, a decrease from 68.1% (164,983) in the previous quarter. This is also lower than the 68.7% (159,203) observed a year previously in the quarter ending 30 September 2023.

A graph showing the trend of completed patient pathways and percentage of completed patient pathways against the 18 weeks Referral to Treatment (RTT) standard, NHSScotland, September 2019 to September 2024.

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Total number of completed patient pathways and percentage of completed patient pathways against the 18 weeks Referral to Treatment (RTT) standard, NHSScotland, September 2019 to September 2024.

Background

The 18 Weeks RTT standard applies to the entire patient journey from the initial referral to the start of treatment. Achieving the standard depends on waiting times for diagnostic tests, outpatient appointments, and inpatient and day case treatment. 18 Weeks RTT performance is based on adjusted waits for consultant led treatments and fully measurable completed patient journeys.

An error has been identified where, prior to July 2024, NHS Fife recorded activity for new outpatient clinics under the specialty of General Medicine despite them not offering this service. Discussions are ongoing regarding resubmissions from NHS Fife. As a result, NHS Fife and NHSScotland figures will be slightly inflated in the months prior to July 2024.

NHS Tayside were unable to submit data for the period July 2017 to December 2017 and NHS Grampian were unable to submit data for the period February 2020 to June 2022.

Further information

Data about this publication are available from the publication page on our website.

For more information, please contact us at phs.waitingtimes@phs.scot.

Open data from this publication are available from the Scottish Health and Social Care Open Data platform.

The next release of this publication will be 25 February 2025.

PHS is currently undertaking a review of the statistical publications we produce; all planned care waiting times outputs are being reviewed and this may lead to a change in the content, layout and frequency of future publications. Any substantial changes will be announced ahead of implementation. For more information, please contact us at phs.waitingtimes@phs.scot.