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

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. Overall, there was estimated to be 629,632 individuals on at least one of these lists at 31 March 2025. 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 March 2025, 322,218 new outpatient waits were completed when the patient involved was seen at their outpatient clinic. This represents an increase of 3,918 (+1.2%) from the previous quarter but is 0.8% lower than the same quarter last year.
•  Of these waits, 197,277 (61.2%) were completed in 12 weeks or less, a decrease of 3,533 from the previous quarter and a decrease in percentage from 63.1%.
•  At 31 March 2025, there were 559,742 waits that were still ongoing, a decrease of 0.7% (-3,786) compared to the end of the previous quarter but 3.9% higher than at the end of March 2024.
• The number of long waits has been on an upward trajectory for two years. At 31 March 2025, there were 63,406 waits that had been ongoing for over one year, an increase of 16,117 (+34.1%) compared to 31 March 2024. Of these, 5,262 waits had exceeded two years, up by 3,930 over the same period. This is the highest number of waits over two years ever reported.

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 the quarter ending March 2025, 64,843 patient waits under this guarantee ended when the patient involved was admitted for their intended treatment. This represents an increase of 1,301 (2%) from the previous quarter. Compared to the same period in 2024, the number of admissions has increased by 1.1%.
• Of these waits, 36,760 were completed in 12 weeks or less, up from 36,151 in the previous quarter. This figure amounts to 56.7% of all completed waits this quarter, a slight decrease proportionally from quarter ending 31 December 2024 (56.9%).
• At 31 March 2025 there were 158,436 waits for treatment that were still ongoing, a decrease of 0.4% (-648) compared to the end of the previous quarter but 1.1% higher than at the end of March 2024.
• At 31 March 2025, there were 38,702 waits that had been ongoing for over one year, an increase of 1,082 from the same date last year but down slightly (-64) from the position at 31 December 2024. Waits over one year account for 24.4% of the overall list size. Of these, 7,969 had been ongoing over 2 years and 1,518 over 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 26 August 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.