NHS waiting times - stage of treatment
Inpatients, day cases and new outpatients quarter ending 30 September 2024

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) relates to the length of time patients wait to be seen as a new outpatient or admitted for treatment as an inpatient or day case. The latest statistics represent all patients covered by the national standards for these stages of treatment. The number of ongoing waits reported below are supplemented with estimates on the number of individuals waiting to be seen at a consultant-led clinic or admitted for treatment. For the first time the report has been expanded to include estimates on the total number of individuals waiting to be seen at an appointment or admitted for treatment. Overall, there was estimated to be 636,238 individuals on at least one of these lists at 30 September 2024. This equates to 1 in 9 of Scotland’s population (mid-2023 population estimates Scotland).

Main points

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

• During the quarter ending September 2024, 314,961 new outpatient waits were completed when the patient involved was seen at their outpatient clinic. This represents an increase of 1,781 (+0.6%) attendances from the previous quarter and is 1.6% higher than the same quarter last year.
• Of these waits, 201,178 (63.9%) were completed in 12 weeks or less, down from 204,961 (65.4%) in the previous quarter. However, the number of completed waits over 12 weeks increased from 108,219 to 113,783 during the same period.
• At 30 September 2024, a total of 568,561 ongoing waits were being experienced by an estimated 510,133 individuals. This represents an increase of 0.8% (+4,390) in list size compared to the end of the previous quarter. The total waiting list size is 5.6% higher than at the end of September 2023 and has increased more than two-fold (+312,193) since 31 March 2020, shortly after the onset of the pandemic.
• In July 2022 the Scottish Government (SG) announced new targets to eradicate long waits. In respect of new outpatient appointments, the targets were to eradicate waits over two years (104 weeks) by the end of August 2022, those over 18 months (78 weeks) by the end of December 2022 and those over a year (52 weeks) by the end of March 2023. These targets have yet to be achieved and ongoing waits in all three measures have increased over the last year. At 30 September 2024, in comparison to the previous quarter, there were 62,595 (+3,913) waits that had been ongoing over 52 weeks, 15,076 (+2,686) waits over 78 weeks and 3,712 (+1,688) over 104 weeks.

Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG) – Following the decision to treat, all eligible patients should wait no longer than 12 weeks for treatment as an inpatient or day case.

• During quarter ending September 2024, 63,350 patient waits under this guarantee ended when the patient involved was admitted as an inpatient or day case for their intended treatment. This represents a decrease of 1,831 (-2.8%) admissions from the previous quarter and is the first reduction in activity reported since the quarter ending December 2021. Compared to the same period in 2023 however, the number of admissions has increased by 6.6%. It should be noted that the reported rise in completed waits from last year is partly due to the inclusion of ophthalmology waits at NHS Golden Jubilee following an improvement in data supply.
• Of these waits, 36,541 (57.7%) were completed in 12 weeks or less, down from 38,043 (58.4%) in the previous quarter. There were 26,809 waits completed after 12 weeks or more, 329 fewer than in the previous quarter.
• At 30 September 2024, a total of 156,192 ongoing waits were being experienced by an estimated 150,863 individuals. This represents a slight decrease of 0.1% (-131) in list size compared to the end of the previous quarter which comes after a slowdown in the growth of the waiting list over the last year. However, the number of ongoing waits is 2% higher than at the same date last year and is more than twice the average at the end of quarters in 2019 (+78,611), prior to when the COVID-19 pandemic began to impact on planned care services.
• The final target announced by the SG in July 2022 with respect to eradicating long waits for treatment as an inpatient or day case was to eradicate waits over one year (52 weeks) by the end of September 2024. This, along with the other long wait targets, has not been met. There were 38,373 waits over 52 weeks at 30 September 2024, which represents an increase of 478 from the previous quarter end and is 4,037 higher than when the targets were announced. Of these waits, 17,731 had been ongoing over 78 weeks, 7,157 over 104 weeks and 1,349 for more than three years.

Background

Documents relating to waiting times, including the TTG are available via the waiting times section of the website.

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

Further information

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 4 March 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.