‘Wake-up call’ for the Scottish Government

Scottish Labour health spokesperson Anas Sarwar said the issue is a “deeply concerning” wake-up call for the Scottish Government.

“Our valued NHS staff are already hard-pressed enough under SNP mismanagement,” he claimed.

“They don’t need to be undertaking multiple tests, and patients shouldn’t be going through the stress of having them done more than once.”

Liam Kerr, Scottish Conservative list MSP for the North East, added: “Given the number of people who cross between Tayside and Fife for treatment, this will create unnecessary duplication and increased costs at a time when services are stretched and budgets are tight.”

“Patients will find it difficult to understand why such test results cannot be passed on when they are being referred to a different area for treatment.”

Councillor Tim Brett, who represents the Tay Bridgehead area, said: “I do find this very worrying.

“The population, particularly of north-east Fife, which numbers 75,000 people, has always gone across the bridge to Ninewells, so its not as if there has been a change in the way people are being treated.

“I have had someone contact me about this and this is a cause of worry and delays.

“People might think we have a national health service, with national underlined, but what this demonstrates is we still appear to have 12 regional services, each of which does its own thing when it comes to data recording systems.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “It is an absolute priority of the Scottish Government that everyone receives the level of care they expect.

“Sharing electronic patient information in a secure and timely manner is important to ensure effective and integrated care and there are established national systems in place already adopted across NHS Scotland.

“These provide a core component of infrastructure and are complemented by local IT systems.”

Anas Sarwar MSP.