NHS Scotland

Scottish waiting times, by health board

How long patients are currently waiting for a first outpatient appointment and for inpatient or day-case treatment in each NHS Scotland health board — from Public Health Scotland's official monthly statistics (July 2026).

Scotland does not have England's legal Right to Choose, so these figures are for understanding what to expect and for asking informed questions — of your GP, your board, and your representatives — rather than for switching hospitals.

Also on HospitalWaits: England (compare trusts)Wales (by health board)

Scotland overall, July 2026

Median wait so far for those still waiting: 87 days for a first outpatient appointment (507,535 people waiting), and 134 days for inpatient or day-case treatment.

Every health board

Median wait of people currently on the list (“ongoing waits”), all specialties combined. Click a board for its specialty-by-specialty breakdown.

Health board	Outpatient median	9 in 10 within	Inpatient/day-case median	Waiting >52 weeks
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	89 days	255 days	127 days	1,549
NHS Borders	98 days	245 days	107 days	72
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	101 days	289 days	129 days	482
NHS Fife	72 days	234 days	127 days	759
NHS Forth Valley	57 days	164 days	129 days	205
NHS Grampian	94 days	329 days	150 days	7,662
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	91 days	247 days	137 days	5,019
NHS Highland	86 days	303 days	79 days	1,882
NHS Lanarkshire	100 days	267 days	150 days	2,042
NHS Lothian	84 days	283 days	110 days	5,434
NHS Orkney	72 days	221 days	123 days	110
NHS Shetland	56 days	196 days	127 days	58
NHS Tayside	92 days	319 days	168 days	5,135
NHS Western Isles	37 days	136 days	49 days	2

Every board page breaks these down by specialty — outpatient and inpatient, median and 9-in-10 waits. See NHS Lothian as an example →

About these figures

“Median” here is the midpoint wait so far of people still on the list at month end — half have waited longer already.
Scottish “stage of treatment” waits measure the outpatient and treatment stages separately, so they are not comparable with English referral-to-treatment figures. Details on our methodology page.
“Not published” means Public Health Scotland withheld or qualified the figure — it never means zero.
Source: Public Health Scotland, Stage of Treatment Waiting Times (Open Government Licence).