Health Secretary has reaffirmed NHS Scotland ‘is
turning a corner' as he welcomes a new report outlining progress
in tackling waits for treatment.
The report highlights sustained progress on waiting times in the
past year, including waits of over a year decreasing for eight
consecutive months since May 2025 and new outpatient waits over a
year more than halving since July 2025.
Other progress reported in 'A Year of Progress - Driving
Improvement and Building a Stronger NHS'include:
- inpatient/day-case waits over a year reducing by almost 30%
since July 2025
- more procedures commissioned by National Treatment Centres
compared to last year
- the Golden Jubilee becoming the largest hip and knee
replacement centre in the UK
- an additional 108,000 new outpatient appointments, procedures
and diagnostic tests so far in 2025-26 compared to same period
last year.
Hospital at Home is also helping relieve pressure on the system
and improving patient care - new statistics published today show
between November 2025 to January 2026 almost 7,200 patients were
treated via the programme.
To enhance patient care, the Health Secretary also confirmed new
online service MyCare.Scot will begin rollout nationally across
Scotland from April, building on the successful pilot launched in
Lanarkshire in December.
Health Secretary said:
“The data clearly shows our NHS is turning a corner and with the
current trajectory, I expect a number of specialties within
Boards will have nobody waiting longer than a year for treatments
or procedures by the end of March. This is a significant
milestone and builds on the real, sustained progress we have
seen 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 am proud of
the progress we have made and based on my discussions with NHS
Chief Executives we expect further substantial improvements on
long waits.
“Our hard-working NHS staff are driving this progress and I thank
them for their continued dedication - as I visit hospitals and
health centres across the country I am hearing first-hand about
the real impact their work is having on patients and their
families. Our investment is supporting boards to expand
Hospital at Home capacity and I am pleased to see new figures
show that almost 7,200 patients were treated via the programme
from November 2025 to January 2026.
“While we are delivering thousands more operations and
procedures, we know there is more to do. Despite the incredible
work we are seeing across our NHS to bring down the backlog built
up with the pandemic, this report is clear about the need to
drive further progress. I have been crystal clear with health
boards my expectation that any patient who has waited over 52
weeks should be receiving communication to clearly set out the
timeframe in which they can expect to be seen.
“I am pleased to confirm that MyCare.Scot, our new online service
for patients, will launch in April and begin rolling out across
the country. This is the first step in giving people a simple,
secure way to see and manage their own health and social care
online and we will develop this service as it grows.”
Background
A Year of Progress:
Driving Improvement and Building a Stronger NHS:
2025-2026 – sets out progress over the past year on the
Operational Improvement Plan alongside a final summary of
achievements delivered by the NHS Recovery Plan 2021–2026
Hospital at Home
statistics
To assist patients in accessing waiting time information prior to
treatment, Public Health Scotland offers data on initial planned
care waiting times via an online platform, indicating
the typical wait durations over the past quarter. This
information is categorised by quarter, health board of treatment,
and specialty.
