WIREDGOV

Sustained progress on waiting times during the past year.

Health Secretary Neil Gray 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 Neil Gray 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.”