Stage of treatment waiting times
New outpatients, inpatients and day cases
Accredited official statistics
- Published
- 26 May 2026 (Latest release)
- Type
- Statistical report
- Author
- Public Health Scotland
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 30 April 2026 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.
Main points
- At 30 April 2026, there were an estimated 572,206 individuals on at least one new outpatient, inpatient or day case waiting list. This is equivalent to around 1 in 10 of Scotland’s population (mid-2024 estimates). Within this total, 444,036 individuals were estimated to be waiting for a new outpatient appointment, and 149,563 for an inpatient or day case admission.
New outpatient national standard - 95% of new outpatients should wait no longer than 12 weeks from referral to being seen
- There were 103,093 attendances at a new outpatient clinic during April 2026, a decrease of 16.6% from the previous month, and down by 0.5% compared to April 2025. This is also the lowest level of activity reported since December 2024. In April 2026, 65.5% of these waits were completed in 12 weeks or less, an increase from 59.2% in March.
- At 30 April 2026, the number of ongoing waits increased marginally by 0.02% to 487,658 compared to the end of the previous month. This is the first month in which the waiting list size has increased since July 2025, but compared to 30 April 2025, the number of ongoing waits is down 13.7%.
- The number of waits over 52 weeks has been reducing month on month, down to 14,986 at 30 April 2026, a decrease of 1,130 compared to the end of March. Of the remaining waits over one year, 1,144 waits had exceeded two years, down 41 from the end of March. As reflected in the extended PHS impact assessment published in April 2026, the long waits position has improved substantially since 31 March 2025 and while waits are consistently lower under the 2023 guidance, the difference between the two sets of guidance is small within the context of the overall direction of travel.
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 22,050 inpatient and day case admissions during April 2026, a decrease of 15.9% from March 2026, and an increase of 6.6% compared to April 2025. Of these waits, 57% were completed within 12 weeks of treatment being agreed, a rise from 53.9% in March.
- At 30 April 2026, the number of ongoing waits for treatment was 154,973, down 0.8% from the end of March and 2.7% from 30 April 2025.
- The number of waits over 52 weeks has reduced month on month, down to 17,293 at 30 April 2026, a decrease of 484 compared to the end of March. Of the remaining waits over a year, 2,289 had exceeded two years, a decrease of 194 from the end of March. As reflected in the extended PHS impact assessment published in April 2026, the long waits position has improved substantially since 31 March 2025 and while waits are consistently lower under the 2023 guidance, the difference between the two sets of guidance is small within the context of the overall direction of travel.
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.
Following implementation of the Scottish Government’s revised Waiting Times Guidance, published in December 2023, these statistics have been aligned to the revised waiting time clock adjustment rules since 30 July 2025. An initial impact assessment, including technical details of implementation, was published with the first release of statistics using the new guidance in October 2025. An extended impact assessment was published in April 2026, with more detailed analysis on the impact of implementation on key trends over the full year to March 2026.
Users of waiting times statistics often want to compare waiting times across the four nations of the United Kingdom. In 2024, work was carried out to assess the comparability of these statistics, led by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), in partnership with NHS England, Department of Health and Social Care, Welsh Government and Department of Health Northern Ireland, Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland. Findings were published in July 2024, highlighting multiple causes for variation including:
- National waiting times policy: each country has different health care policies which drive priorities. Healthcare policies and policy documentation can be complex, evolve over time and be implemented in different ways.
- Waiting time management/measurement: the ways in which health boards manage and measure waits, e.g. in the event of patient unavailability or non-attendance, has an impact on the calculation of waits.
- Data systems: waiting times statistics are extracted from operational systems. This can affect data coverage and the extent to which data are available and used for statistical or analytical purposes.
ONS concluded that direct comparisons on waiting times performance cannot be reliably drawn across the four nations. Comparisons between England and Wales, and to some extent Scotland and Northern Ireland, may be helpful because there are likely to be some more similarities, but more extensive investigation would be required to fully understand the impact of the different contexts. PHS endorses this position and asks users of these official statistics to refrain from drawing UK-wide comparisons.
Further information
The next release of this publication will be on 30 June 2026. A full provisional schedule for the next 12 months is available via the inpatient, day case and new outpatient waiting times section of the website. Please note, the data files below are updated quarterly while the report, summary, dashboard and open data are updated monthly.
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.
General enquiries
If you have an enquiry relating to this publication, please contact Stuart Kerr at phs.waitingtimes@phs.scot.
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Older versions of this publication
Versions of this publication released before 16 March 2020 may be found on the Data and Intelligence, Health Protection Scotland or Improving Health websites.