Scottish Government announces £25m NHS funding to reduce waiting times

The Scottish Government has announced an additional £25.5m this year for planned care appointments in an attempt to reduce long waiting times for patients.

The First Minister said the money will go towards providing more outpatient appointments and inpatient/day case procedures across a variety of specialities, including orthopaedics, dermatology, general surgery, and gynaecology.

Cardiology and paediatrics will also get extra funding.

The announcement comes in the wake of a Government commitment to cut NHS waits of more than a year entirely by March.

The Scottish Government announced last week that waits of more than a year had reduced for the fourth consecutive month in September 2025, claiming that the total list size and the longest NHS waits are beginning to decrease.

The outpatient wait list decreased by 2% compared to the same month last year, and the inpatient and day-case waiting lists fell by 0.2%.

However, there were still an estimated 628,696 individuals on at least one new outpatient, inpatient or day case waiting list as of September 2025 – equivalent to around 1 in 9 Scots.

There were also still 56,439 people over a year for an appointment or procedure.

For inpatient and day case treatment, there were 29,417 waits ongoing.

‘Real benefit for patients’

Speaking during a visit to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, Swinney said: “The latest figures show our plan to support Scotland’s NHS is working, delivering real benefits for patients.

“We have already provided £110m of additional targeted funding this year to tackle the longest waits. Now we are providing a further boost to deliver more appointments and procedures, taking the total additional funding to £135.5m for 2025-26.”

The First Minister said he is “determined” to build on the progress achieved by NHS staff and health boards.

“We want to help them provide the care and treatment patients need and expect – and we are already seeing results,” he said.

“Not only are the total list size and longest waits coming down, but we are treating more people than last year. There is still work to be done, but these are very welcome improvements.

“Under my leadership, the people of Scotland can expect a strong National Health Service delivering patient care of the highest possible quality.”

The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, however, urged the Government to make greater use of national treatment centres to help reduce waiting times.

Describing waits for NHS treatment as being a major issue for the population, the organisation’s president Professor Rowan Parks said: “It’s estimated approximately one in nine of the Scottish population is on some form of a waiting list, whether that be for outpatient assessment, inpatient or day case treatment.”

In the long-term, he said, “there needs to be redesign and renewal of the way in which services are delivered”.

In addition, he urged the Government to make “increased use of national treatment centres”.