What the five types of planned NHS operations are that have the highest current average waiting times, and what the current average waiting…

Information on the types of planned NHS operations that have the highest current average waiting times is not held by Scottish Government. Public Health Scotland (PHS) uses the national waiting times datamart to collect electronic patient records covering the waits that patients experience waiting for treatment as an inpatient or day-case under the Treatment Time Guarantee.This data source can be used routinely to identify the specialty of treatment. However, although the records are designed to collect coded information on the procedure that is planned for the patient, this information is often either incomplete, lacking in essential detail and/or its accuracy cannot be assured. Consequently, PHS is not currently able to report accurately on waiting times to this level of detail.The table below shows the number of ongoing waits along with the median (days) and 90th percentile (days) by sex for the top five specialties that have the largest median wait across NHSScotland for all specialties covered by the Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG) at 31 March 2025.The statistics provided include the median wait and not an average. The median is used to indicate that roughly half of patients waited less than the statistic and half of patients waited longer. The median is used because an average (mean) could potentially be skewed incorrectly by a small number of very long waits that may be recorded in error in the national data. The 90th percentile is also included; this is used to indicate that 9 out of 10 ongoing waits at month-end are waiting less than or equal to the number of days shown.Table 1 – Total number of ongoing waits as an inpatient or day case for NHSScotland, at specialty level broken down by sex for the top five specialties (that have the highest median wait) across NHSScotland, at 31 March 2025 Male2Female2TotalSpecialtyOngoing waitsMedian (days)90th percentile (days)Ongoing waitsMedian (days)90th percentile (days)Ongoing waitsMedian (days)90th percentile (days) Community Dental Practice9672495587992585331,766252545 Paediatric Surgery12,3612458093211475082,683235775 Gynaecology13928778912,78422876212,825228762 Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) 18,0822136497,72021667815,806215662 Neurosurgery6902098807882038021,478206848 1.There were 7 (1 paediatric surgery, 2 gynaecology and 4 ear, nose & throat (ENT)) ongoing waits where the sex was not recorded. This is due to patients that have opted out of sharing their personal information.2.Please note that the sex of a patient is taken from the Community Health Index (CHI), which is a register of all patients in NHSScotland.