NHS waiting times - diagnostics
Waits for key diagnostic tests

About this release

This quarterly release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) relates to the number of ongoing waits for one of eight key diagnostic tests at 31 March 2023 and the lengths of wait experienced. The eight key diagnostic tests are upper endoscopy, lower endoscopy (excl. colonoscopy), colonoscopy, cystoscopy, CT scan, MRI scan, barium studies and non-obstetric ultrasound. Please note that individual patients are counted more than once if they are waiting for more than one diagnostic test, so the official statistics shown here and in previous publications do not reflect the actual number of individuals involved. The terminology across this publication has therefore been changed to prevent misinterpretation of statistics. Please refer to the full report for further detail.

Main points

This dual axis trend chart shows the monthly trend in the waiting list size for each of the eight key diagnostic tests individually and the percentage of waits ongoing for six weeks or less for all eight tests combined between 31 March 2019 and 31 March 2023. There are two vertical dotted lines depicting when COVID-19 emergency measures were introduced (March 2020) and when these were lifted (April 2022). As can be seen in this chart, the three high-volume radiology tests (non-obstetric ultrasound, CT and MRI) largely occupy the chart, due to the volume of ongoing waits for each, with non-obstetric ultrasound accounting for over 40% of all ongoing waits for the eight key diagnostic tests combined. The chart shows that prior to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, the waiting list size for each test and the percentage of waits ongoing for six weeks or less for all eight key diagnostic tests combined was relatively stable. After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of ongoing waits generally increased, initially across all tests, but in 2021 this was driven by accelerating growth in the radiology waiting list, particularly for non-obstetric ultrasound. The rate of growth generally slowed for most tests at 31 March 2022, and the number of ongoing waits for all eight tests combined decreased between 30 September 2022 and 31 January 2023. However, there was an increase recorded at 28 February and again at 31 March 2023. While seven of the eight tests increased at the end of the latest quarter (apart from cystoscopy), this increase is largely driven by ongoing waits for a non-obstetric ultrasound which accounts for two thirds of the overall increase compared to the previous quarter-end. These figures will also be influenced by the seasonality affect where there is a natural drop-off in referrals at the end of December due to the holiday period and a subsequent increase in the following quarter. After the resumption of services in summer 2020, the percentage of waits that were ongoing for six weeks or less for the eight key tests combined steadily improved. Then as the second wave of COVID-19 emerged over the winter and capacity for non-urgent care was reduced across many parts of the country, improvement in the performance measure slowed down and dipped, most noticeably, in January 2021. Since then, performance against the six-week standard was on an upward trend, reaching 64.1% at 31 May 2021, the highest rate observed since the pandemic began to impact services. The rate subsequently followed a general downward trend but has increased in the latest quarter to 53% at 28 February before decreasing slightly to 52.1% at 31 December 2022. These figures are the highest recorded since 30 November 2021, however the figure at the latest quarter-end remains markedly down on the 84% reported in the same quarter in 2019.

Close

Trend in the waiting list size and percentage of waits ongoing for six weeks or less at month-end, by test, NHSScotland, 31 March 2019 to 31 March 2023

At 31 March 2023:

• The number of ongoing waits for one of the eight key diagnostic tests remains higher than prior to when the COVID-19 pandemic began to impact service provision in March 2020. The total waiting list size for the eight key tests combined was 152,567, an increase of 2.9% (+4,311) compared to the previous quarter-end. This was a consequence of increases for seven of the eight tests with only the number of ongoing waits for cystoscopy reducing (-151). An increase in the number of waits for a non-obstetric ultrasound account for two-thirds (+2,884) of the overall rise.
• Of these, 52.1% had not yet exceeded the six-week standard. However, there was variation across tests, from 26.9% of waits ongoing for six weeks or less for a lower endoscopy, compared to 81% for a barium study.
• There was a reduction in the number of ongoing waits that were ongoing for a longer period of time. Compared to the previous quarter-end, the number of waits ongoing for over 26 weeks reduced from 14,433 to 13,670 (-5.3%) and those over 52 weeks reduced from 4,638 to 3,773 (-18.7%).
• However, there was variation between tests. For example, the number of waits for an upper endoscopy that had been ongoing over 52 weeks increased by 11.3% (+75), while those for a colonoscopy decreased by 22.7% (-500). Similarly, the number of waits for a CT test that had been ongoing over 26 weeks increased by 59.1% (+449) while those for a non-obstetric ultrasound decreased by 17.9% (-795).

Background

These statistics continue to be impacted by COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic.

Further background information on NHS Scotland Waiting Times, including diagnostics, can be found in CEL 33 (2012).

Further information

For more information see the Waiting Times section of our website. PHS have developed an animation, with further explanations of how waiting times are calculated. A more detailed report can be accessed via the following link: Diagnostic Tests and Investigations.

Open data from this publication is available from the Scottish Health and Social Care Open Data Platform 

The next release of this publication will be 29 August 2023.

NHS Performs

A selection of information from this publication is included in NHS Performs. NHS Performs is a website that brings together a range of information on how hospitals and NHS Boards within NHSScotland are performing.