SNP neglecting women’s health amid years-long hysterectomy waits, Labour says

The Scottish Government has been accused of “neglecting women’s health” after figures revealed some are waiting years for a hysterectomy.

Statistics obtained by Scottish Labour show that one woman in NHS Lanarkshire faced a 1,564-day wait for a hysterectomy in 2025/26.

Meanwhile, a woman in NHS Tayside waited nearly four years – 1,446 days – and another in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde waited more than three-and-a-half years, or 1,288 days.

The longest wait recorded in NHS Ayrshire and Arran in the past year was 837 days while NHS Borders and NHS Fife saw waits of 642 and 724 days respectively.

NHS Highland and NHS Lothian did not provide data while NHS Orkney recorded the lowest wait at 58 days, followed by NHS Shetland at 65 days and NHS Western Isles at 80 days.

One woman in NHS Forth Valley waited 217 days while another in NHS Grampian waited 215.

Hysterectomies are used to treat a range of women’s health conditions when other treatment options have failed, including several types of cancer.

Speaking on International Women’s Day, Labour MSP Carol Mochan, the party’s women’s health spokeswoman, said: “It is a scandal that the SNP is leaving women in limbo for years on end waiting for potentially life-saving hysterectomies.

“Women’s health in Scotland has been treated as an afterthought for too long and now the SNP’s NHS crisis has pushed things to crisis point.

“We see the same story time and time again – women waiting years for hysterectomies, dealing with soaring gynaecology lists and waiting as much as a decade for endometriosis diagnoses.

“Scottish Labour will step up where the SNP has failed, fix the mess they have made of our NHS and give women’s healthcare the attention it deserves.”