Almost 773,000 patients on NHS waiting list, figures show

More than three quarters of a million Scots are on a waiting list for an NHS appointment, treatment or key diagnostic test.

As of December 31 last year, 772,887 people were waiting either for an outpatient appointment, inpatient or day case treatment in hospital, or for tests.

The figure is down 0.4% from the 776,341 people on waiting lists at the end of September 2022.

Scottish Conservatives said the NHS backlog under Health Secretary Humza Yousaf – who is now running to be the next SNP leader and Scottish first minister – is “truly terrifying”.

Tory health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: “No meaningful progress is being made in reducing Scotland’s enormous waiting lists.”

He branded the number of people waiting “utterly shameful”, and added: “We know that continued delays to starting treatment only leads to further suffering for patients – and, in the worst case scenarios, unnecessary deaths.”

Scottish Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie was also critical of the Health Secretary, saying: “Mr Yousaf’s disastrous stewardship of our NHS has made him the worst Health Secretary since devolution.”

She highlighted an “increase in both outpatient and inpatient wait times” amongst the issues facing the NHS, and said Mr Yousaf had “shown absolutely no ability to solve these problems”.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “We’ve grown used to hearing about the crisis in our NHS, but that one in seven Scots are still languishing on a waiting list is just completely unacceptable.

“And the lack of action from the Government is an insult to doctors, nurses and patients waiting in pain.”

The comments came as new figures from Public Health Scotland (PHS) showed the number of Scots waiting for either inpatient or day treatment in hospital was up by almost a quarter (22%) compared to December 2021 – and was 87% higher than the average quarterly total of 2019, prior to the Covid pandemic.

At the end of last year, there were 144,045 patients waiting to be taken into hospital for treatment – including 6,856 people who had been waiting more than two years.

The majority of those who are on an NHS list are waiting for an outpatient appointment, with this total rising by 1% over the last three months of 2022 to 480,639.

Here, PHS noted there “has been an upward trend in the number of patients waiting since Covid-19 began to impact on planned care in March 2020” – with the latest figure meaning 225,350 more people are waiting for appointments than there were at the end of March 2020.

Separate figures show 148,203 patients were waiting for one of eight key diagnostic tests as of December 31, 2022 – with this total down 7% from the end of September.

This is the first fall in the waiting list size since December 2020 – but PHS stressed the total is now 69% larger than it was at the end of 2019.

The figures also show just 45.8% of patients were able to have tests within the six-week target set by the Scottish Government.

Cancer Research UK said about 4,600 (3.1%) patients waiting for a test had been waiting over a year – with most of this group waiting for an endoscopy, which uses a camera to look inside the body.

The charity’s Andy Glyde said: “People in Scotland are still waiting too long for a test to determine whether they have cancer.

“Some people have been waiting over a year for certain tests, mainly endoscopies. This is unacceptable and needs to be addressed urgently as early diagnosis followed by swift access to treatment provides patients with the best chance of survival.

“The Scottish Government’s target that no-one should wait more than six weeks for a diagnostic test has not been met since 2010 – well before the pandemic hit.

“NHS staff are working incredibly hard, but years of chronic workforce shortages and a lack of specialist equipment means patients are not receiving the care and treatment they need.”

Mr Yousaf said: “Despite ongoing significant pressures, it is heartening to see continued progress being made in NHS waiting times since the introduction of targets to reduce long waits in July 2022.

“The number of people being seen as inpatients/day case and outpatient is the highest since the start of the pandemic, with most outpatient specialties having fewer than 10 patients waiting over 78 weeks to be seen.

“There has also been a decrease for the first time in two years of the number of patients waiting for one of the eight key diagnostics tests.

“We know that challenges remain and some people continue to wait too long for treatment, but we are determined to continue to work with NHS boards to provide support to drive improvements across our health service.”