waiting list and more than 10 000 of them have waited over a year.

Professor John Robertson OBA

UK Labour MP, Elaine Stewart, is outside her local hospital to shout about the length of the waiting list.

There is no single “waiting list” for the entire board. Lists are made up of sub-lists from each department. I’m not able to comment. If you are a constituent, you might like to write and ask her.

What I do know is:

NHS England threaten longer waiting lists, already quarter of million longer than in Scotland and to ration care – Imagine that was in Ayrshire?

From the Guardian 27 October 2025, the above and:

NHS bosses are seeking an emergency injection of £3bn to cover unexpected costs and have warned ministers that without it patients will wait longer for treatment and hospitals will start rationing care.

That rationing threat is not a good look for Anas Sarwar’s Labour as we run up to Holyrood 2026.

I have heard him or Jackie Baillie claim, however, that the waiting lists are shrinking in England and are shorter per head than in Scotland. Is that true. Don’t be daft:

NHS waiting list in England is longer per head by quarter of a million patients and shockingly twice as long in Wales, than in Scotland

Waiting times in the English NHS have gone up for the third month in a row. It made the BBC News at One but was dropped from the News at Six. No politicians in sight. No health secretary.

Sarwar and Baillie are lying when they claim waiting times are going down in England. pic.twitter.com/yFBKL1ysSE

— MSM Monitor (@msm_monitor) October 9, 2025

MSM Monitor, fast and effective as always, demolished the claims of Baillie and Sarwar yesterday.

What are the most recent waiting list figures?

• Scotland – 718 000 pathways
• England – 7 410 000
• Wales – 796 000

So, with 10 times the population, England might be expected to have 10 times as many as Scotland or 7 180 000 but has 230 000 more.

With just over half (0.57%) of the population, Wales might be expected to just over half of the waiting list length, 400 000 at most, of Scotland but actually has nearly 400 000 more than that.

Sources:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/mi-nhse-waiting-list-minimum-data-set/for-week-ending-31-august-2025 

https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/nhs-waiting-times-stage-of-treatment/stage-of-treatment-waiting-times-inpatients-day-cases-and-new-outpatients-quarter-ending-30-june-2025/ 

https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Health-and-Social-Care/NHS-Hospital-Waiting-Times