£50m for wait list

Hea l t h b o s s e s hav e announced an additional £50million to tackle hospital waiting times.

The cash is going out to all boards to improve performance, outpatient appointments, diagnostic tests and treatment.

This is to help reduce patient waiting times, particularly for people who have been experiencing waits above the 12-week treatment time guarantee.

The cash follows £10million recently invested to reduce outpatient waiting times, focusing on areas such as orthopaedics, ophthalmology and gastroenterology.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said: “This increased funding of £ 50million will help us reduce waiting times at all stages of a patient’s journey through the NHS — the original consultation, any tests required, and the final procedure itself.

“While it is encouraging to see an improvement in outpatient performance, I absolutely recognise the need to do more to reduce waiting times— particularly when it comes to the 12-week treatment time guarantee for inpatient and day cases.

“Our ambitions for the NHS are founded on the twin approach of investment and reform.

“This additional investment will help improve performance and reduce waits.”

The Health Minister added £128million is being made available this year to support the delivery of health service reform.