For BBC Scotland neither a falling murder rate nor falling NHS Scotland waiting times as the gap widens further with UK Labour’s climbing ones, are ‘news’ for you

New figures show NHS waiting lists have fallen and waits of more than a year have reduced for the fourth month in a row. When compared with August 2025, September saw a 7.3% decrease in new outpatient waits longer than a year – this number has now fallen for four consecutive months. The total waiting list for outpatients has decreased by 2.0% on the same month last year, and the inpatient and daycase waiting list has fallen by 0.2% over the same period. Treatment Time Guarantee waits of over a year have decreased by 5.9% when compared to last month. These waits have been dropping since February 2025 and are now lower than at the same point last year. Reductions are seen under both 2012 and 2023 waiting times guidance. The latest figures show that activity has increased, with the number of new outpatient attendances for September increasing by 10,136 (9.5%) to 116,776 attendances when compared with August. There has also been an increase of more than 31,000 appointments and procedures from April to September compared to same period in 2024. https://www.gov.scot/news/reduction-in-nhs-waiting-lists