Image source, Getty Images

The number of patients on hospital waiting lists has risen again to almost 625,000, the latest statistics show.

The number waiting for an outpatient appointment or for a planned operation, like a hip replacement or cataract removal, is almost double the average before the Covid pandemic.

There has been a small improvement in the numbers waiting the longest.

However, about 8,000 patients had been waiting over two years.

The latest Public Health Scotland figures are for the three months to the end of December 2022.

The waiting list number is the highest since statistics were recorded in their current form about a decade ago.

The number on hospital waiting lists is equivalent to one in nine of the Scottish population.

The latest statistics showed that 480,639 patients were waiting to be seen for an outpatients appointment, a small increase on the previous quarter but up 88% on the pre-pandemic figure.

For inpatients procedures and day care, 144,045 patients were waiting to be admitted.

Again this was a small increase on the previous three months but 87% up on the period before the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the numbers waiting for one of the eight main diagnostic tests went down in the final three months of 2022.

The latest figures showed 148,203 patients were waiting to be seen for tests such as endoscopy, colonoscopy, cystoscopy, CT scans, and MRI scans.

This is the first decrease in waiting list size since December 2020 but it is still 69% higher than before the Covid pandemic.

Related Topics