NHS waiting times - stage of treatment
Inpatients, day cases and new outpatients

About this release

This monthly release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) focuses on the length of time patients wait to be seen as a new outpatient or admitted for treatment as an inpatient or day case. Revised calculations of wait featured in the 2023 waiting times guidance published by the Scottish Government in December 2023 have been implemented by PHS since July 2025. These latest statistics up to 31 December 2025 cover all patients waiting for an appointment or procedure as well as those seen and removed from a waiting list covered by the national standards. Individual patients are counted more than once if they are waiting to attend more than one scheduled hospital appointment or admission, so the official statistics shown here do not reflect the actual number of individuals involved. To avoid overestimating the population affected, the number of ongoing waits for inpatients, day cases, new outpatients and any other service (e.g. diagnostics) should not be added together to determine the proportion of the total population waiting for these types of care. These statistics are however supplemented with an estimate on the number of individuals waiting.

Overview of latest statistics on waiting list activity, NHS Scotland, up to 31 December 2025

The number of attendances reported in the latest month is inflated by approximately 3,200 due to an NHS GGC recording issue in ophthalmology, which they hope to resolve prior to the next publication. Ongoing waits are affected to a lesser extent. Please see data quality for further information.

Infographic of an overview of latest statistics on waiting list activity for NHS Scotland from November 2023 to December 2025 for key indicators including attendances/admissions, ongoing waits and waits over 52 weeks for new outpatients and inpatients and day cases.

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Main points

• At 31 December 2025, there were an estimated 595,591 individuals on at least one new outpatient, inpatient or day case waiting list. This is equivalent to around 1 in 9 of Scotland’s population (mid-2024 estimates). Within this total, 467,142 individuals were estimated to be waiting for a new outpatient appointment, and 150,927 for an inpatient or day case admission.

New outpatients national standard - 95% of new outpatients should wait no longer than 12 weeks from referral to being seen

• NHS boards reported a total of 108,481 attendances at a new outpatient clinic during December 2025, with 60.1% of these waits completed in 12 weeks or less, an increase from 59.6% in November. In 2025/26 to date, boards reported 995,778 attendances, up 44,954 compared to the same nine months in 2024/25. However, the number of attendances reported in the latest month and year to date are inflated by approximately 3,200 due to an NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) recording issue, meaning that the actual number of attendances is estimated to be 105,281 during December 2025 and the number in 2025/26 to date to be 992,578, up 41,754 compared to the same nine months in 2024/25.
• At 31 December 2025, the number of ongoing waits decreased by 2.9% to 517,415 compared to the end of the previous month and by 8.2% compared to 31 December 2024.
• In line with the timing of the 2023 guidance implementation, statistics on long waits are directly comparable from 31 July 2025 onwards. From then, the number of waits over 52 weeks has reduced month on month, down to 37,930 at 31 December 2025, a decrease of 6,916 compared to the end of November. Of these, 3,882 waits had exceeded two years, down 1,671 from the end of November marking the third consecutive monthly decrease.

Treatment Time Guarantee - following the decision to treat, all eligible patients should wait no longer than 12 weeks for treatment as an inpatient or day case

• There were 21,859 inpatient and day case admissions during December 2025, with 58.6% completed within 12 weeks of the treatment being agreed, a rise from 57.1% in November. In 2025/26 to date, there have been 203,698 admissions, up 11,357 compared to the same nine months in 2024/25.
• At 31 December 2025, the number of ongoing waits for treatment was 156,314, down 0.9% from the end of November and 1.6% from 31 December 2024.
• In line with the timing of the 2023 guidance implementation, statistics on long waits are directly comparable from 31 July 2025 onwards. From then, the number of waits over 52 weeks has reduced month on month, down to 25,011 at 31 December 2025, a decrease of 1,336 compared to the end of November. Of these, 4,310 had exceeded two years, a decrease of 390 from the end of November. Waits over two years have also reduced each month since 31 July 2025.

Background

The waiting times section of the website provides further information relating to the supply, quality assurance and reporting of waits, as well as links to the latest national guidance set by the Scottish Government.

Further information

As outlined above, PHS has now increased the frequency of this publication from quarterly to monthly, reflecting high levels of public interest in the statistics. It is the fourth release of waiting times statistics following the implementation of the NHSScotland waiting times guidance, published by Scottish Government in December 2023 and implemented by PHS in July 2025. The statistics are now aligned to the revised waiting time clock adjustment rules, the impact of which is referenced in the report, with further detail available via the PHS impact assessment - 2023 waiting times guidance. This contains analysis based of statistics published on 28 October 2025. Updated analysis, covering the period up to 31 March 2026, is scheduled for release on 28 April 2026. Further details to follow.

The next release of this publication will be 24 February 2026.