for patients across Scotland, according to the Royal College of Radiologists. 60% of cancer centre and radiology department leaders who responded to their report said that staff shortages are causing patients’ conditions to worsen. The president of the Royal College said the findings should be causing alarm bells.

The above story is another direct feed to Reporting Scotland, not being covered in greater detail elsewhere, not even on the BBC Scotland website.

The Health Secretary is contacted and expected to respond to what is a partial, self-selecting, survey of opinion and not actual performance statistics.

Here are some facts:

1. Waits for key NHS Scotland diagnostic tests plummet

From NHS waiting times – diagnostics – Waits for key diagnostic tests, published today, the above and:

The total waiting list size (number of ongoing waits) for the eight key diagnostic tests combined was 112,696: 27,931 endoscopy waits and 84,765 radiology waits. This is a 9% decrease (-11,296) from the previous quarter-end, when there were 123,992 ongoing waits. The latest quarter end has the lowest number of ongoing waits seen since 31 May 2021 (111,619).

Source: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/nhs-waiting-times-diagnostics/diagnostic-waiting-times-waits-for-key-diagnostic-tests-26-may-2026/

The graph is perhaps not so easy to read but once explained it’s really good news for the Scottish Government.

First the green shaded area on the right shows a massive reduction, since June 2025, in the numbers waiting for radiology, from around 80% to around 60%.

Based on the lines, in radiology, endoscopy and the cluster of all 8 key diagnostic tests, there have been, since December 2025, surges in the percentage waiting 6 weeks or less.

2. NHS England’s diagnostic tests waiting list is shocking 800 000 or 71% longer than NHS Scotland’s

Here’s why:

From NHS waiting times – diagnostics – Waits for key diagnostic tests, published today, the above and:

The total waiting list size (number of ongoing waits) for the eight key diagnostic tests combined was 112,696: 27,931 endoscopy waits and 84,765 radiology waits. This is a 9% decrease (-11,296) from the previous quarter-end, when there were 123,992 ongoing waits. The latest quarter end has the lowest number of ongoing waits seen since 31 May 2021 (111,619).

Source: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/nhs-waiting-times-diagnostics/diagnostic-waiting-times-waits-for-key-diagnostic-tests-26-may-2026/

The graph is perhaps not so easy to read but once explained it’s really good news for the Scottish Government.

First the green shaded area on the right shows a massive reduction, since June 2025, in the numbers waiting for radiology, from around 80% to around 60%.

Based on the lines, in radiology, endoscopy and the cluster of all 8 key diagnostic tests, there have been, since December 2025, surges in the percentage waiting 6 weeks or less.

So, all things being equal, per head of population, NHS England might be expected to have around 10 times as many or 1.13m waiting for diagnostic tests. As you can see above, they had 1.92m, around 800 000, 70.8% more than predicted.