Scottish Government under fire over ‘out of control’ NHS waiting lists

NHS waiting lists in Scotland have “spiralled out of control”, the Tories claimed as new figures showed more than 1,300 patients have been waiting three years or more for treatment.

Public Health Scotland data from the end of June 2024 showed there were 1,324 patients who have been waiting three years or more for hospital treatment, either as an in-patient or on a day care basis.

Overall there were 155,558 patients waiting for hospital treatment as of June 30, with the data disclosing 7,146 Scots have been on the list for two years or more.

Meanwhile there were 558,896 people waiting for an outpatient appointment at this time – with this including 2,024 people who have been on the list for more than 104 weeks for such an appointment.

Scottish Conservative health spokesperson Sandesh Gulhane said the figures showed that under the SNP “the backlog in Scotland’s NHS has spiralled out of control”.

Dr Gulhane added: “More than 860,000 Scots are stuck on a waiting list for crucial treatment or diagnostic tests, with many being forced to endure unacceptable waits of over a year or more.

“This explains why increasing numbers are being forced to raid their life savings to go private and avoid intolerable waits.”

Meanwhile, Scottish Labour health spokesperson Jackie Baillie said: “It is simply unacceptable that a record 864,366 Scots are stuck in pain on waiting lists due to almost two decades of SNP incompetence.”

She added: “The fact is that the SNP’s failure has put lives at risk, undermined the very existence of our NHS and let down the people of Scotland.

“Warm words simply do not cut it any more.

“Scots demand action to support our NHS, help staff and ensure patients get the treatment that they need when they need it.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton also hit out, saying: “These intolerably long waits are causing untold anxiety in those waiting on diagnostic tests or to receive treatment. They deserve much better than this.”

He added: “The blame for this lies solely at the door of the SNP and their mismanagement of the health system. They have failed to give our hard-working NHS staff the beds, safe staffing and resources they desperately need.”

Public Health Scotland however said that claims from the opposition that more than 860,000 people were now on waiting lists could result in some patients being double counted, if they are on the list for more than one scheduled hospital appointment or admission.

It stressed that figures for the number of patients waiting for a new outpatient attendance and those waiting for treatment “should not be added together to determine the proportion of the total population waiting for these types of care”.

However it was also clear that Scottish Government targets to reduce the longest waits for NHS treatment, which were introduced in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, “have yet to be achieved”.

The targets, announced by then-health secretary Humza Yousaf in July 2022, set out to end waits of more than two years for in-patient or day case treatment by the end of September 2022, with waits of a year or more to be ended by the end of September this year.

Public Health Scotland however noted that in all categories waits had increased over the last year.

As of June 30, there were 37,972 patients who have been waiting a year or more for hospital treatment – with this total having increased by 3,615 since the targets were announced two years ago, with patients waiting 52 weeks or more now making up almost a quarter (24.4%) of those on the waiting list.

Overall, the number of patients waiting for hospital treatment had increased by 3.6% (19,466) from the end of March to June 30 2024 – with the waiting list 7.2% higher than it was at the end of June 2023.

Public Health Scotland also noted the number of people waiting had increased by 302,543 since the end of March 2020,  just after the start of the pandemic.

For patients waiting for an outpatient appointment, ministers had hoped to eradicate waits of two years or more by the end of August 2022, while waits of a year or more were to be ended by March of 2023.

Public Health Scotland noted: “These targets have yet to be achieved and ongoing waits in all three measures have increased over the last year.”

As of June 30, there were 58,191 patients waiting a year or more for an appointment, with this up by 11,278 on the previous year.

Meanwhile, separate figures showed a very slight fall in the number of people waiting for eight key diagnostic tests.

This fell to 149,912 at the end of June – a decrease of less than 0.1% from the total at the end of March.

However, Public Health Scotland also noted: “The latest figure remains higher than prior to when the Covid-19 pandemic began to significantly impact service provision.

“For instance, it remains more than two thirds (70%) higher than at the end of June 2019 when there were 88,012 waits ongoing.”

Health Secretary Neil Gray said: “We know that people are waiting too long but we are determined to provide the necessary support to drive improvements and will continue to target resources to reduce waiting times, particularly for the people waiting longest for treatment.”

He added that “significant activity is already under way” following £30 million of investment by the Scottish Government, which was announced in the spring with the aim of targeting backlogs.

Mr Gray said: “This will see around 12,000 additional new outpatient appointments, around 12,000 additional inpatient/day-case procedures and over 40,000 diagnostic procedures delivered.”

The Health Secretary added: “Our £1 billion NHS Recovery Plan continues to support sustainable improvements and new models of care through our partnership with NHS Scotland’s Centre for Sustainable Delivery who play a central role in this.”