ScotWaits

General Surgery waits across Scotland

Every health board ranked by median wait, shortest first. These count how long people currently on the list have waited so far, for treatment once they have been listed for it.

The gap is wide: NHS Orkney is currently 3 weeks while NHS Grampian is 23 weeks. Both figures rest on a large enough sample to be meaningful.

  1. 1NHS Orkney3 weeks · about 3 weeks
  2. 2NHS Western Isles7 weeks · about 7 weeks
  3. 3NHS Shetland8 weeks · about 2 months
  4. 4NHS Forth Valley9 weeks · about 2 months
  5. 5NHS Ayrshire and Arran12 weeks · about 3 months
  6. 6NHS Dumfries and Galloway13 weeks · about 3 months
  7. 7NHS Fife13 weeks · about 3 months
  8. 8NHS Borders16 weeks · about 4 months
  9. 9NHS Highland16 weeks · about 4 months
  10. 10NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde17 weeks · about 4 months
  11. 11NHS Tayside17 weeks · about 4 months
  12. 12NHS Lanarkshire18 weeks · about 4 months
  13. 13NHS Lothian21 weeks · about 5 months
  14. 14NHS Grampian23 weeks · about 5 months

Boards marked “only n patients” rest on fewer than 30 people, which is too few for a meaningful median — a small board near the top of this table is usually a statistical artefact rather than a fast service. Boards with no published figure are listed last.

You can’t simply pick a board. Scotland has no equivalent of England’s Right to Choose. Where you’re referred is a matter for your GP — though it’s worth asking, since smaller boards do sometimes refer patients elsewhere for a specialty rather than running their own list.