More funding for NHS as Swinney ‘determined’ to drive down waiting times

John Swinney has announced further cash in a bid to cut waiting times in Scotland’s NHS – with the First Minister insisting he is “determined” to do more to tackle the problem.

The Scottish Government will provide health boards with an extra £25.5 million this year, allowing them to provide more appointments and reduce waits for patients.

The funding comes on top of an additional £110 million already announced this year as part of efforts to cut the longest waiting times.

As the money was announced, the First Minister said: “Under my leadership, the people of Scotland can expect a strong National Health Service delivering patient care of the highest possible quality.”

This latest funding boost for the health service comes in the wake of a Government commitment to cut NHS waits of more than a year entirely by March.

While waiting times for treatment have decreased, according to figures released last week, more than 56,439 waits longer than a year were logged as of September 30 for outpatient appointments.

For inpatient and day case treatment, there were 29,417 waits ongoing.

The additional funding announced on Monday is aimed at helping deliver more outpatient appointments, as well as increased numbers of inpatient and day case procedures across a variety of specialities,  including orthopaedics, dermatology, general surgery and gynaecology.

Cardiology and paediatrics will also get extra funding, the Scottish Government has said.

Speaking on a visit to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, Mr Swinney said: “The latest figures show our plan to support Scotland’s NHS is working, delivering real benefits for patients.

“We have already provided £110 million of additional targeted funding this year to tackle the longest waits. Now we are providing a further boost to deliver more appointments and procedures, taking the total additional funding to £135.5 million for 2025-26.

“I am determined to build on the progress being achieved by hardworking staff in our health service, like those I met today at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.

“We want to help them provide the care and treatment patients need and expect – and we are already seeing results.

“Not only are the total list size and longest waits coming down, but we are treating more people than last year. ”

While he accepted there is “still work to be done”, the First Minister said these were “very welcome improvements”.

The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, however, urged the Government to make greater use of national treatment centres to help reduce waiting times.

Describing waits for NHS treatment as being a major issue for the population, the organisation’s president Professor Rowan Parks said: “It’s estimated approximately one in nine of the Scottish population is on some form of a waiting list, whether that be for outpatient assessment, inpatient or day case treatment.”

In the long-term, he said “there needs to be redesign and renewal of the way in which services are delivered”.

In addition, he urged the Government to make “increased use of national treatment centres”.

While Scotland has a number of these centres – which were brought in to increase capacity in the NHS by providing more appointments, diagnostic testing and surgeries – plans for more were put on hold by ministers last year amid funding concerns.

Speaking about the role of these national treatment centres on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Prof Parks said: “We’ve got five in Scotland, there was a pause put on some further development of those.”

Adding he would “love” to see the further centres go ahead, he said these could be a way of “planning in advance and particularly tackling high volume cases, lower complexity” treatments.