Increase in access to GP care but waiting lists in Scotland are terrible

4th November 2025

The Good News.

Health Secretary Neil Gray underlined the Scottish Government's commitment to shift the balance of care to community settings, as new data shows an increase in the number of times people have accessed care at their GP surgery.

Statistics released by Public Health Scotland today, show patients in Scotland had 33.98 million direct encounters with staff in General Practice between October 2024 and September 2025 - an increase of 2.4 million on the same 12-month period in 2023-24.

GP numbers have increased in Scotland and to make it easier for people to access GP services and support recruitment, the Scottish Government is investing an additional £531 million of newly agreed funding in General Practice over the next three years, subject to Parliament agreeing future budgets.

Health Secretary Neil Gray said:

"We are determined to improve access to primary care, and I welcome these figures which show more people are accessing care at their GP surgery. I am grateful to our hard-working GPs and all practice staff for the care they provide.

"And while GP numbers have risen in Scotland over the last year, we have put a plan in place to go further.

"We have confirmed that we will invest £531 million over the next three years to significantly boost recruitment and help deliver the capacity needed to improve services for patients. This is the largest-ever investment in core GP services in Scotland.

"This will be supported by our commitment to open 15 new GP walk-in centres providing care from 12pm-8pm seven days per week, making it easier for people to get the care they need in a way that works for them."

The Bad News
Only 61.7% of new outpatient appointments (in Sept 2025) were completed within 12 weeks — this is below the target of 95%.

For inpatient/day case admissions just 56.6% were completed within 12 weeks in Sept 2025.

On 31 March 2025 for outpatient waits, there were 63,406 waits of over 1 year — a 34.1% increase compared to the previous year.

For treatment waits at 31 March 2025, 7,969 waits had exceeded 2 years.

According to the British Medical Association Scotland, the proportion of outpatients waiting more than 12 weeks was 59% in March 2025 (up from 25% in March 2019).

It has also been reported that very long waits (2+ years) are much more common in Scotland than in England.
https://theferret.scot/claim-nhs-waits800-times-more-scotland-mostly-true/