First Minister sees progress in Grampian.
First Minister has
welcomed figures showing long
waits for appointments and treatment are
continuing to fall across Scotland as he visited
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary to see progress.
The latest Public Health Scotland data
shows that across all health boards, new
outpatient waiting times over 52 weeks have
fallen by as much as 90 per cent in some
specialities over the past six months, and waits
for paediatric surgery have reduced by nearly
60%.
In NHS Grampian, new outpatient waits over a year have fallen by
as much as 84.6% for ophthalmology and 82% for gynaecology since
July 2025.
The First Minister visited Aberdeen Royal Infirmary to
hear how key services are helping to drive
down waiting times and improve access to
healthcare, such as the Chest X-Ray AI system, the frailty
service and Hospital at Home.
Mr Swinney said:
“Our plan is delivering a better NHS for the people of Scotland.
In the last year we have seen real, sustained progress - month
after month. Activity is up, long waits are down and
the hard work of all our NHS teams is delivering real,
measurable change. I want to deeply thank each and every one
of them for their continued efforts.
“Substantial progress has been reported across every health
board, and across key specialties where funding has been targeted
this year. In some areas we've seen long waits
for new outpatients falling by as much as 100%,
with thousands more people being treated.
“I am determined to drive further progress and ensure
services continue to be
accessible, efficient, and better tailored
to people's needs -whether at home, in the community,
or in hospital. The work I have seen at
NHS Grampian is an excellent
example of the kind of innovation which is
helping us to
deliver better care for everyone
in Scotland.”
Background
The following data is based on PHS Stage of Treatment – up to 31
Jan 2026.
For waits over 52 weeks, new outpatient appointments across
Scotland - from end July last year to the end of
January:
- 94.94% (-544) for Rheumatology
- 91.92% (-182) for Haematology
- 85.61% (-607) for Endocrinology & Diabetes
- 87.5% (-154) for General Medicine
Between July last year and January this year, new outpatient
waits over 52 weeks have reduced:
- For Orthopaedics by 99.3% (-149) in NHS Borders,
87.0% (-1,609) in NHS Lanarkshire, and over 76.8% (-142) in NHS
Tayside. and NHS Lanarkshire.
- For Gynaecology by 100% (-317) in NHS
Fife, over 95.3% (-683) in NHS Ayrshire and Arran,
90.0% (-425) in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and 82.0% (-341) in
NHS Grampian.
