These graphs tell a very clear story of longer waits (right) plummeting despite ever more patients being treated. It’s a hugely positive trend not getting the media attention it deserves, for obvious reasons.
From Stage of treatment waiting times New outpatients, inpatients and day cases Accredited official statistics published today, the above graphs, and:
At 31 March 2026, there were an estimated 571,054 individuals on at least one new outpatient, inpatient or day case waiting list. This is equivalent to around 1 in 10 of Scotland’s population (mid-2024 population estimates Scotland).
There’s a more detailed breakdown at: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/stage-of-treatment-waiting-times/stage-of-treatment-waiting-times-new-outpatients-inpatients-and-day-cases-28-april-2026/
With 10 times the population, you’d expect the figure for England to be around 5.8 million but it was 6.1 million who were on at least one new outpatient, inpatient or day case waiting list. https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Feb26-RTT-SPN-Publication-PDF-552K-9j03fJT.pdf
300 000, 5% higher.
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Talking-up Scotland 
Four weeks ago I had to rush my partner to A&E in the Southern General Hospital in Govan.
I had no time to phone 111 so did not have an appointment. Apparently, if you can, phone 111 beforehand as it can help you get seen quicker in A&E.
After registering her we sat in the crowded waiting room — the queue was diminishing quickly. She was taken in for initial check within ten minutes. By twenty minutes she was taken in again for bloods and stuff. Within an hour she was being attended by a consultant and within three hours she was in a ward being fussed over by some smashing people (the intermediate two hours she was well looked after by A&E staff.
I can say too that many of the folk who were sitting around us in the waiting room were attended in the same time frame. I myself have been an inpatient and outpatient many times in the last seven or eight years (auld age certainly doesn’t come alone) and I have not one single complaint about my treatment there or at The Royal Infirmary or Gartnaval Eye Infirmary — not one.
Are there any unpleasant folk in the NHS, are there lead-swingers too? The NHS employees around 200,000 people so, of course there are, but the vast majority of them are brilliant. So, I am sick fed up with unionist SNP haters denigrating the hard work and care of our wonderful NHS doctors, nurses and other staff to score cheap political points. Their hatred for the SNP outweighs any thought they might have for Scotland and their fellow Scots.
Is Quisling spelled with an ‘S’ or a ‘Z’?
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