HANG YOUR HEADS IN SHAME OVER NHS DELAYS

SNP slated over health record as Scots patients suffer longer waiting times

THE Scottish Government’s performance on waiting times has sunk to a new low in the latest scandal to hit the beleaguered NHS.

Waiting times for hospital operations have worsened, while the number of patients facing delays for key diagnostic

tests almost quadrupled in just two years.

The new NHS figures, according to critics, represent ‘agonising waits and potentially worsening symptoms’ for patients.

The number of people waiting more than 12 weeks for inpatient or day hospital treatment reached 18,338 in the three months to the end of June – in breach of a legal guarantee set up by the SNP and the highest total since this was introduced in October 2012.

Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs said: ‘The SNP should hang their heads in shame.’ And Cancer Research UK warned that the NHS simply does not have enough staff to provide effective cancer diagnosis.

The number of patients waiting

longer than the target time for key diagnostic tests has soared.

As of June 30 this year, 18, 44 people had been waiting six weeks or more for tests or investigations, including tests for cancer. That compares to 4,750 in June 201 .

Gregor McNie, of Cancer Research UK, said: ‘These statistics suggest that the NHS in Scotland does not have enough staff to be as effective as possible in diagnosing cancer.

‘This situation is deeply concerning, particularly as demand for tests is only going to grow due to an aging population and efforts to diagnose more people at an early stage.’

In 2012, the SNP introduced the Treatment Time Guarantee, giving patients a legal right to treatment within 12 weeks for conditions such as knee and eye operations.

But between April and June this year this was breached for more than a quarter of patients.

Mr Briggs said: ‘The continual increases in waiting times for both inpatients and diagnostic tests are truly worrying. These represent agonising waits, and potentially worsening symptoms, for all patients in need of diagnosis and treatment.

‘The SNP has been in sole charge of the health service for 11 years... these constantly increasing waiting times are simply the tragic results of the SNP’s failures to recruit staff and support primary care.

‘As ever it is patients and staff who will bear the brunt of these terrible figures. The SNP should hang their heads in shame.’

Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: ‘In 2012 the SNP made a promise to the people of Scotland that they would have a legal right to treatment within 12 weeks. That law has been broken 35,129 times in 2018 already.

‘Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has an overflowing in-tray of issues, but these broken laws sum up the problem – our NHS staff don’t get the support they need so thousands of patients miss out on the care they deserve.’

The Scottish Government, however, yesterday published a patients’ experience survey showing satisfaction at a record high, with 83 per cent rating their hospital care as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’.

Miss Freeman said: ‘NHS investment and staffing are at historically high levels, and the record high inpatient satisfaction rates published today are a testament to the hard work of our frontline NHS staff.’

She added that an additional £ million had been allocated to reduce waiting times for endoscopies, with a focus on the most urgent patients.

‘This followed a package of measures including £50million extra funding to reduce long waits for treatment,’ Miss Freeman said.

‘Worsening symptoms’