Government to amend 12 week waiting time law

The Scottish Government are set to amend the Charter of Patient Rights after the 12 week law on waiting times was broken almost 120,000 times.

Scottish Labour raised the issue on Tuesday and have accepted a government amendment to a Holyrood motion that will lead to health boards having to give accurate estimates under the Treatment Time Guarantee.

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

Under the present system patients are told of the legal guarantee but not how long the waiting time for their procedure actually is.

This has led to some patients waiting up to 40 weeks for routine operations.