NHS Lothian Inpatient Waiting Times The table below will show how long patients have recently waited to be seen in NHS Lothian. Please just select the specialty from the drop down list. The specialty name can be found on the letter sent to patients when they are added to the waiting list. The table shows how long 9 out of 10 patients waited to be seen in the last 3 months. This can be used as a guide to show you how long patients may wait to be seen after they have been added to the waiting list. This is only a guide and many patients will not wait as long as those shown in the table. Waiting times can be affected by a number of factors. For example, as more space opens up, the waiting time will decrease if patients are seen in order. The calculations will also be affected by specialty areas with smaller numbers of patients. If a patient’s priority changes then this can also affect the figures. For example, if a patient moves from routine to urgent, their total wait time is counted (e.g. the time they waited as a routine patient and the time they waited as an urgent patient), this can result in urgent wait times which look longer than the actual wait patients experience. The waiting time is shown in weeks by specialty, priority and age band. Local specialty: This can be found on the letter which is sent to patients when they are added to the relevant waiting list. Priority: When a patient is added to a waiting list, a clinician determines how quickly they need to be seen. This is known as the priority and is either routine or urgent. Age band: As the waiting times vary across adult and paediatric services, these have been split to give a clearer picture of the wait in those areas. If there is no waiting time shown in the table, this is because there have been less than 20 patients seen in the last 3 months and so the waiting time cannot be accurately calculated. This information will be updated on a monthly basis. AdultAdultPaediatricPaediatric SpecialtyRoutineUrgentRoutineUrgent
