10,000 NHS patients wait over a year on list

Labour MSP brands health figures a ‘disaster’

Nearly 10,000 patients in Ayrshire and Arran have waited a year or more for treatment, new figures have shown.

The figures, from Public Health Scotland, show that a total of 9346 in the Ayrshire and Arran area faced extensive waits to treat their ailments, as of September 30 last year.

Those on the list, waiting a year or longer, included patients requiring key diagnostic tests, a first outpatient appointment and admission for inpatient, or day case treatments. In total, 56,555 people in the Ayrshire and Arran region were on a waiting list for treatment of some description last year, according to the figures, which end September 30.

South Scotland Labour List MSP Colin Smyth said: “These astounding figures are nothing short of a disaster for our area, exposing once and for all what an abject failure the SNP Government’s NHS Recovery Plan has been.

“Thousands of people waiting more than a year for basic healthcare undermines the fundamental principles of our

NHS.

“The SNP failed to deliver a successful catch-up programme while Covid rates were lower, meaning that services across my constituency were already stretched to breaking point before the new variant hit. Now we are in the midst of a full-scale crisis, with hundreds of patients languishing on waiting lists for over a year and counting. While Covid has exacerbated the challenges facing our NHS, many of the problems causing these waiting lists were there long before the pandemic such as a shortage of GPs, carers and other key health workers.”

The Scottish Government hit back at Mr Smyth’s comments, saying it was “absurd” to brand the Recovery Plan a “failure.”

A spokesperson said: “The emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 is adding to existing winter pressures and health boards are having to make tough decisions and prioritise urgent care including cancer treatment.

“More than two million inpatients and day cases have benefited from the 12-week treatment target since it was introduced- however, the pandemic has inevitably led to a build-up of numbers waiting for treatment. This is why we developed the NHS Recovery Plan, setting out plans and ambitions for the next five years, backed by more than £1 billion of funding.

“It’s absurd to brand this a failure less than five months after it was published, while we are still in the midst of a global pandemic.

“We have published an Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal Plan backed by £70 million. We have also invested £9 million this year to support diagnostic imaging capacity with six mobile MRI scanners and four CT scanners across NHS Scotland.”

Thousands of people waiting more than a year for basic health care undermines the fundamental principles of our NHS