Golden Jubilee centre can have ‘real impact’ on waiting times, Swinney says

Scotland’s NHS has “increasingly got the resources, the facilities and the staff” needed to reduce waiting times, First Minister John Swinney has insisted.

Mr Swinney claimed record funding announced for the NHS in the 2025-26 draft Budget could also help tackle backlogs.

He made the comments as he visited a new surgical centre at the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, which is taking patients from across Scotland in a bid to reduce waiting lists.

Labour, however, claimed there has been a “mystifying” fall in the number of patients being referred to the Clydebank hospital.

The party said data it obtained under Freedom on Information showed the number of cases referred for general surgery there in September 2024 was 43% lower than the same month in 2023.

Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: “It’s mystifying that health boards are referring half the number of patients to the Golden Jubilee Hospital than they were last year.”

She added: “The SNP has promised more money, following a record budget settlement from a UK Labour Government, to address the waiting list backlog, so there should not be internal financial barriers standing in the way of patients getting life-changing surgery.”

Her comments came as Mr Swinney hailed the surgical centre at the Golden Jubilee Hospital as being a “first-class, modern facility” which is a “fantastic addition to the capacity of the National Health Service”.

The centre has “the capacity to make a real impact on waiting times”, the First Minister added, saying this was his priority for the NHS.

He told journalists the centre was “an example of the fantastic investment that we can make and the transformation of clinical care that can come about as a consequence”.

Adding that it helps “with the overall national effort in reducing waiting times”, he stressed the importance of the Scottish Government’s investment in the NHS.

The draft Budget for next year includes extra cash for both day-to-day running costs for the health service, as well as capital funding for facilities, with the First Minister promising this would “further strengthen the work we are undertaking to reduce waiting times in Scotland”.

He said: “The Golden Jubilee Hospital is an essential facility within the National Health Service in providing high-quality elective surgery for patients right across Scotland and is making a significant contribution to reducing waiting times across Scotland.

“The service has been enhanced by the establishment of a national treatment centre here which is able on a very efficient basis to undertake a significant amount of surgical procedures.

“That’s an indication of the investment by the Government supporting the delivery of healthcare and reducing waiting times for patients.

“The Golden Jubilee Hospital is offering essentially additional capacity in the National Health Service, so it is providing a service and resource here in Clydebank, but it is available to patients from all over the country, I met patients today down from my own locality in Tayside who are receiving their procedures here.

“What that is doing is strengthening our elective capacity in the health service, that helps us to reduce waiting times and that is very much the focus of the government’s Budget last week.”

While work on building projects in the NHS had to be paused, Mr Swinney stated: “Obviously we are now in a position to allocate more capital expenditure to the National Health Service, so I want to see more progress undertaken and we will do that as quickly as we possibly can do.

“But the crucial point I want to focus on is making sure we use all of the assets available to us today to reduce waiting times, to make the biggest impact we possibly can do, and I think we have increasingly got the resources, the facilities and the staff to enable us to do that.”