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 28 February 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.

Infographic of an overview of latest statistics on waiting list activity for NHS Scotland from February 2024 to February 2026 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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Overview of latest statistics on waiting list activity, NHS Scotland, up to 28 February 2026

Main points

• At 28 February 2026, there were an estimated 578,804 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, 449,153 individuals were estimated to be waiting for a new outpatient appointment, and 151,431 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

• There were 112,044 attendances at a new outpatient clinic during February 2026, with 58.6% of these waits completed in 12 weeks or less, a decrease from 59.8% in January. In 2025/26 to date, there have been 1,229,641 attendances, up 69,080 compared to the same 11 months in 2024/25.
• At 28 February 2026, the number of ongoing waits decreased by 1.9% to 494,394 compared to the end of the previous month and by 11.9% compared to 28 February 2025.
• 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 23,415 at 28 February 2026, a decrease of 6,415 compared to the end of January. Of these, 2,159 waits had exceeded two years, down 569 from the end of January marking the fifth 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 23,282 inpatient and day case admissions during February 2026, with 54% completed within 12 weeks of the treatment being agreed, a decrease from 56.4% in January. In 2025/26 to date, there have been 250,247 admissions, up 15,803 compared to the same 11 months in 2024/25.
• At 28 February 2026, the number of ongoing waits for treatment was 156,751, down 1% from the end of January and 1.6% from 28 February 2025.
• 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 20,825 at 28 February 2026, a decrease of 1,989 compared to the end of January. Of these, 3,132 had exceeded two years, a decrease of 473 from the end of January. 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 NHS Scotland 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 includes analysis using 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 28 April 2026.