Huge drop in number of operations

Hospitals in Scotland have performed 14,000 fewer operations this year.

The number of planned operations in Tayside and Fife fell by 2,451 between January and July, compared with the same period in 2016.

The analysis by the Times named the two regions the fourth and sixth worst of the country’s 14 health boards.

Miles Briggs, for the Scottish Tories, said the decline in NHS activity was not a reflection of health improvements. “It’s down to dwindling resources and staff numbers, and that’s on the SNP’s head,” he said.

Scottish Labour’s Anas Sarwar said the figures were “simply unacceptable”.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said almost 900 operations were successfully carried out each day across Scotland. “We are committing an additional £327 million to NHS Health Boards in 2017-18, plus we allocated an additional £50m to improve waiting times,” she added.

An NHS Tayside spokesman said any decision to defer a procedure is “always taken as a last resort”.