Government targets to increase NHS activity may not be achievable, doctor warns

Scottish Government targets to increase NHS activity in a bid to tackle waiting times backlogs may not be achievable, a senior medic has warned.

With the number of patients on NHS waiting lists rising, ministers promised £30 million of funding to help tackle the problem – saying this could result in an extra 12,000 procedures being carried out, 40,000 additional diagnostic tests and 12,000 new appointments.

Health Secretary Neil Gray said the funding – announced in April – would “target reductions to national backlogs that built up through the pandemic”.

However Dr Alan Robertson, chairman of the British Medical Association Scotland’s consultants committee, has cast doubt on whether the number of procedures, tests and appointments promised can be delivered.

Asked if the targets are achievable, he told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “I don’t practically see how they are really.”

He said NHS staff on the ground have not yet seen how the additional funding is “feeding through”.

His comments came as figures showed the number of Scots on NHS waiting lists has increased to a new record high of 864,366 – although the Scottish Government said this total may involve some patients being counted more than once.

But at  the end of June this year, there were 155,558 patients waiting for hospital treatment, 558,896 waiting for an outpatient appointment and 149,912 on the list for diagnostic tests

Dr Robertson said these “very large figures” will “obviously have a big impact on the patients affected” as they wait for NHS care.

“It just seems to be getting worse, unfortunately,” he said.

While the Scottish Government has introduced targets to abolish the longest waits, Public Health Scotland – the body which published the waiting time figures – noted these have not yet been met.

For patients waiting for an outpatient appointment, ministers had hoped to eradicate waits of two years or more by the end of August 2022.

However the latest figures show at the end of June this year, 2,024 people had been on the list for an appointment for two years or more.

Ministers had also aimed to end waits of over two years for in-patient or day case treatment by the end of September 2022, but as of June this year there were 7,146 Scots who had been waiting this length of time for treatment.

Dr Robertson said: “It is one thing to have a target, it is another thing to actually be able to meet that target.

“To meet the target, what you need is adequate staffing, you need enough staff to be able to deal with these.

“What we have seen is obviously increasing vacancy rates.”

He added that if the NHS can “recruit to fill all these gaps, that would make a difference”.

Speaking on behalf of BMA Scotland, Dr Robertson continued: “From our perspective there have unfortunately been years of under investment in the consultant workforce, and there has been too much spending on agency staff and locum staff.

“What we need to do is actually properly recruit and retain permanent staff so we are not spending large sums of money on these temporary, sticking plaster approaches.”

Mr 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.

“Significant activity is already under way following the £30 million investment to target backlogs, announced in the spring. This will see around 12,000 new outpatient appointments, around 12,000 inpatient procedures and over 40,000 diagnostic procedures delivered.”