NHS waiting lists increase by almost 5% with 800,000 Scots languishing

More than 800,000 Scots were on NHS waiting lists at the end of June, figures show, an increase of 5% from the previous quarter.

Figures published by Public Health Scotland on Tuesday showed 518,491 people are waiting for outpatient treatment, while 149,255 are waiting for inpatient or day case treatment.

Statistics released last week showed 152,606 people were waiting on one of the eight key diagnostic tests.

Taken together, 820,352 people are on an NHS waiting list in Scotland, up from 783,694 at the end of March.

Tuesday’s statistics also show 37,252 people were waiting longer than 12 months for outpatient care, up from 35,260 at the end of March.

While 36,628 were waiting for inpatient or day case treatment, a slight decrease from 36,905 the previous quarter.

However, the figures showed more then 1,500 inpatient cases were waiting longer than three years for treatment, along with 220 outpatient cases.

The increase comes despite the then health secretary, Humza Yousaf, announcing targets to reduce waiting lists, about which Public Health Scotland said on Tuesday “these targets have yet to be achieved”.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: “We are working with NHS Boards to reduce long waits, which have been exacerbated by the impacts of the global pandemic.

“This includes targets announced last summer to address the backlog of planned care in our NHS and the delivery of the commitments in the £1 billion NHS Recovery Plan to support an increase in inpatient, day-case, and outpatient activity.

“We have also increased capacity through the creation of a network of National Treatment Centres (NTCs) to provide capacity for more than 40,000 additional surgeries and procedures each year.”

But Scottish Labour’s deputy leader, Dame Jackie Baillie, said the NHS was “on life support”, accusing the Scottish Government of “standing idly by while this crisis spirals out of control”.

“Record waiting lists have soared again, leaving thousands of Scots stuck languishing in limbo for more than a year – but catch-up efforts haven’t worked, with the number of operations plummeting,” she said.

“This disastrous SNP government has put lives at risk and undermined the very principles of our NHS, tinkering around the edges while things decline.”

Scottish Tory health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane described the figures as “terrifying”.

“It is scarcely believable that over 800,000 Scots are now on an NHS waiting list.

“That sums up the abject failure of Humza Yousaf’s flimsy NHS recovery plan – written two years ago – which simply isn’t worth the paper it was written on.

“Instead of remobilising frontline NHS services, Humza Yousaf’s disastrous stewardship of the health service means more and more Scots are waiting for vital procedures and tests.

“His successor, Michael Matheson, has been left an almighty mess to clear up, but suffering patients and my dedicated colleagues on the front line are seeing precious little action from the latest SNP health secretary.”