Scotland is facing record high NHS waiting lists with more than 690,000 waits for appointments or surgery care that are non-urgent. Public Health Scotland reveals the number of people waiting for outpatient appointments has stood at 534,178, which is double the pre-pandemic size. The number of in-patients on the list is at 156,108, a slight decrease from the previous quarter. However, this is still up by 5.8% from last year and more than double the previous waiting times in 2019. The data also shows that over two years, more than 8000 people were waiting and 85,000 people had waited for over a year to start treatment at either an outpatient appointment or a surgical care.
In response, Scotland’s government states that it is investing £30m to reduce waiting lists, but the opposition has criticized its handling of the healthcare service. During July 2022, the then health secretary Humza Yousaf announced plans to eradicate long waits for treatment, including ending two-year waits for inpatient treatment by September 2022, 18-month waits by September 2023, and those over a year by September 2024. Although targets have yet to be achieved, the government is committed to creating a network of ten national treatment centers to address extended waiting times affecting non-urgent care by carrying out at least 40,000 additional elective surgeries, diagnostics, and other procedures annually by 2026.
Public Health Scotland acknowledged that these targets have yet to be met after reporting that over 7,000 of people were still waiting for more than two years and there were 37,761 people waiting over 12 months. Of those waiting, 1,369 have been on the list for more than three years. With only three centers active thus far and two more planned for unveiling this year, the pause on capital spending means there is currently no schedule for further ones.
Scottish Conservative Health spokesman, Dr. Sandesh Gulhane, said that the backlog faced a disorderly situation, and Scottish Labour Health Spokesperson Jackie Baillie mentioned that the waiting list figures reveal Scots have been dismissed by two bad governments in their most desperate hour of necessity, after 14 years of the Conservative government and 17 years of the SNP’s management. Despite the Scottish government’s response, more patients keep being added to the waiting list, even though more patients are being seen
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More