People want NHS treatment rather than apologies for delays, Sarwar tells Swinney

Scots on NHS waiting lists want treatment, not apologies from the First Minister, Anas Sarwar has said.

The Scottish Labour leader was speaking days after figures showed the number of people waiting two years for outpatient treatment was at the highest level on record.

Statistics released on Tuesday showed 5,262 people were waiting for more than two years for a procedure at the end of March this year.

They also showed 63,406 people were waiting more than 12 months.

Responding to Mr Sarwar when pressed on the issue during First Minister’s Questions, John Swinney said: “I recognise the significant impact of long waits on individual patients, and I apologise to everybody who’s affected by those long waits.

“It’s why the tackling of long waits is central to the Government’s plans to deliver the improvements in the National Health Service that are required.”

However Mr Sarwar said: “Week after week, John Swinney comes to this chamber and apologises and things continue to get worse.

“People don’t want to hear sorry, they want treatment, and that is on this SNP Government.

“Time after time, the SNP has promised to get to grips with the crisis in our NHS.

“They promised recovery after the pandemic, but the situation has only got worse.”

Mr Sarwar raised the case of 41-year-old Tracey Meechan, who has been waiting more than 100 weeks for surgery for an ovarian cyst.

The Labour leader also raised the plight of Eileen Kelly, an 80-year-old from Glasgow who he said was told she faced a wait of two-and-a-half years for treatment for osteoarthritis in both hips, which has left her right one “disintegrated”.

As a result, she paid £10,000 for private treatment.

According to the MSP, Ms Kelly told him: “Live two flights up and have been left immobile and in agony.

“I’ve worked and paid taxes all my life – but when I needed the NHS, the SNP let me down.

“I feel betrayed and abandoned.”

The First Minister said he was “sorry” to hear of Ms Kelly’s case, adding: “All of us must realistically look at the fact that the Covid pandemic interrupted the ability to deliver healthcare services for members of the public for a two-year period and it takes a period of recovery time for that.

“It needs focus, it needs direction to make sure it is successful, and the measures I’ve set out about the expansion of capacity are designed to do that.”