Stage of treatment waiting times
New outpatients, inpatients and day cases
Accredited official statistics
- Published
- 28 April 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. These latest statistics up to 31 March 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. Statistics are therefore supplemented with estimates on the number of individuals waiting.
Main points
- At 31 March 2026, there were an estimated 571,054 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 population estimates Scotland). Within this total, 442,703 individuals were estimated to be waiting for a new outpatient appointment, and 149,681 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 123,444 attendances at a new outpatient clinic during March 2026, with 59.2% of these waits completed in 12 weeks or less, an increase from 58.6% in February. In 2025/26, there were 1,353,278 attendances, 78,794 more than 2024/25. The number of attendances during the latest month is the highest reported since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- At 31 March 2026, the number of ongoing waits decreased by 1.2% to 486,695 compared to the end of the previous month and by 13% compared to 31 March 2025.
- The Scottish Government commitment to eliminate waits over 52 weeks by March 2026 has not been met, although there is evidence of significant progress. The number of waits over 52 weeks has been reducing month on month, down to 16,090 at 31 March 2026, a decrease of 7,221 compared to the end of February. Of the remaining waits over a year, 1,166 waits had exceeded 104 weeks, down 980 from the end of February. As reflected in the accompanying extended PHS impact assessment, waits over one year have reduced by 74.6% since 31 March 2025 under the 2023 guidance, compared to 69.2% under the previous guidance. Therefore, 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. The same applies to new outpatient waits over two years.
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 26,114 inpatient and day case admissions during March 2026, with 53.9% completed within 12 weeks of the treatment being agreed, a rise from 53.5% in February. In 2025/26, there were 276,724 admissions, 19,531 more than in 2024/25. The number of admissions during the latest month is the highest reported since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- At 31 March 2026, the number of ongoing waits for treatment was 154,907, down 1.7% from the end of February and 2.6% from 31 March 2025.
- The Scottish Government commitment to eliminate waits over 52 weeks by March 2026 has not been met, although there is evidence of significant progress. The number of waits over 52 weeks has reduced month on month, down to 17,882 at 31 March 2026, a decrease of 2,631 compared to the end of February. Of the remaining waits over a year, 2,500 had exceeded 104 weeks, a decrease of 551 from the end of February. As reflected in the accompanying extended PHS impact assessment, waits over one year have reduced by 52.4% since 31 March 2025 under the 2023 guidance, compared to 48.6% under the previous guidance. Therefore, 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. The same applies to inpatient and day case waits over two years.
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. Alongside this current release, an extended impact assessment has been published, 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 26 May 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.