More planned appointments to reduce NHS waits

24th July 2025

Extra investment to tackle NHS waits is expected to deliver more than 300,000 appointments and procedures this year.

Additional funding of £106 million was set out in the 2025-26 Budget, and an extra £4 million for dermatology activity has been announced today.

The additional planned appointments and procedures delivered through this £110 million are expected to break down as follows.

195,000 imaging scans
31,000 inpatient or day-case procedures
88,000 new outpatient appointments
4,100 new dermatology outpatient appointments
This means 213,000 more appointments are expected to be delivered this year than in 2024/25 - exceeding the Programme for Government commitment of delivering 150,000 appointments by more than 60,000.

A proportion of the funding will also support cancer activity and provide critical supporting services including pathology, diagnostic reporting and pre-assessment.

Health Secretary Neil Gray said:

"Reducing long waits in the NHS is one of the biggest priorities for the First Minister and the Scottish Government. Our record investment in the NHS this year is allowing us to target specific areas that are experiencing long waits, reducing backlogs and getting people the appointments and treatments they need as quickly as possible.

"I am pleased to confirm that we expect the additional funding committed to reduce waiting times to result in more than 300,000 appointments and procedures this year. My thanks go out to all the hard-working NHS teams for their continued efforts.

“Also today I am announcing an additional £4 million specifically for dermatology. We know that this is an area with significant backlogs, so by investing in increased capacity we hope to be able to reduce waiting times for this speciality."

Background

Written question and answer: S6W-39486 | Scottish Parliament Website

As 105,000 additional appointments were delivered last year through an extra £30 million investment, there are expected to be around 213,000 extra appointments this year compared to what was delivered in 2024/25.

The £4 million for additional dermatology activity is expected to fund the following:

4,100 new outpatient appointments

1,500 ‘see and treat'

Photo-triage of up to 8,300 digital images.

£106 million to reduce waiting times -
https://www.gov.scot/news/106-million-to-reduce-waiting-times/