Waiting Times In NHS

29th November 2022

Public Health Scotland today (29 November 2022) published the latest waiting times for the length of time patients wait to be seen as a new outpatient or admitted for treatment as an inpatient or day case. The latest statistics represent all patients covered by the national standards for these stages of treatment. Despite a slight decrease in the number waiting for two years most of the statistics show a declining position.

Main Points
New outpatients national standard - 95% of new outpatients waiting no longer than 12 weeks from referral to being seen.

During the quarter ending September 2022:

300,449 new outpatients were seen, a slight decrease compared to the previous quarter (300,829).
Over two-thirds of the patients seen (68%) had waited 12 weeks or less before being seen, a decrease of 2% since the previous quarter.

96,097 patients (32% of the total seen) had waited over 12 weeks to be seen, an increase of 5,435 (+6%) from 30 June 2022.
At 30 September 2022:

474,600 patients were waiting to be seen. This is an increase of 6% (+25,994) from the previous quarter and is 14% (+59,755) higher than at 30 September 2021. The waiting list is 54% larger than the quarterly average in 2019 prior to the pandemic (308,214).
There was an increase in the number waiting over 52 weeks with 37,947 patients (8% of total list size) compared to 35,697 in the previous quarter.

Progress against the recent outpatient planned care target showed 2,114 patients were waiting longer than 104 weeks. This is an increase of 8 patients compared to the figure presented in ad-hoc publication on planned care targets, but a decrease of 519 from the previous quarter (-20%).

Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG) - Following the decision to treat, all eligible patients should wait no longer than 12 weeks for treatment as an inpatient or day case.

During quarter ending September 2022:

53,474 patients were admitted in the current quarter under this standard, 7% higher than quarter ending June 2022 but 24% lower than the average of 70,599 patients during quarters in 2019.
Of those, 30,118 patients (56% of the total admitted) had waited 12 weeks or less, compared to 30,699 (62%) in the previous quarter. This compares to an average of 71% during quarters in 2019.
23,356 patients (44% of the total admitted) waited over 12 weeks to be admitted, an increase from 19,125 (38%) in the previous quarter.
At 30 September 2022:

141,796 patients were waiting to be admitted, which is a small increase since last quarter (+1,951); however, the gap between additions to and removals from the list is decreasing.
The number waiting is 35% (+36,594 patients) higher than at 30 September 2021 and 54% higher than the average at the end of quarters in 2019 (76,955).

There was a small increase in the number waiting over 52 weeks with 35,337 patients (25% of total list size) compared to 34,999 in the previous quarter.

Progress against the recent inpatient and daycase planned care target showed 7,612 patients waiting longer than 104 weeks. This is a decrease of 48 patients compared to the provisional figure presented at 30 September 2022 in the ad-hoc publication on planned care targets, and a decrease of 2,175 from the previous quarter (-22%).

To read the full report go HERE
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