One in seven Scots on NHS waiting list

Record 780,000 languish amid Yousaf’s ‘legacy’

A RECORD 780,000 Scots are languishing on NHS waiting lists for an appointment, treatment or test.

the number swelled by almost 7,000 in the last three months of Humza Yousaf’s beleaguered stint as health secretary.

It means one in seven Scots faces healthcare delays, despite an SNP Government vow to eradicate long waits.

the figures show the NHS is still failing to recover from the pandemic.

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: ‘these horrific figures once again underline the legacy of Humza Yousaf’s disastrous stewardship of Scotland’s NHS.’

He added: ‘We know that if patients suffer lengthy delays for appointments or crucial diagnostic tests, the greater the risk is to their health.

‘In the worst-case scenarios, these delays lead to needless deaths.

‘Instead of focusing on pushing for another divisive independence referendum, the SNP’s relentless focus should be on driving these waiting times down.’

In the past three years, since the beginning of lockdowns in response to the pandemic, the outpatient waiting list has grown by 87 per cent.

Some 479,725 people were waiting for an outpatient appointment in the three months to the end of March.

A total of 31,498 people had been waiting longer than one year for their outpatient appointment.

Meanwhile, 147,241 patients were on the waiting list for inpatient or day case

‘Underline disastrous stewardship of NHS’

treatment – 89.8 per cent higher than before the pandemic.

of those waiting, 6,985 had been on the list for longer than two years.

the number waiting for one of eight key diagnostic tests also rose by 2.9 per cent since December, rising to 152,567.

According to the NHS figures, 47.9 per cent of those waiting exceeded the six-week government target.

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie accused the First Minister of leaving behind a ‘catastrophic legacy’ as health secretary.

She said: ‘Blame for this national emergency lies squarely with Humza Yousaf and his failed NHS recovery plan, which saw waiting lists spiral after the pandemic.’

Professor Andrew Elder, president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, said: ‘We require greater investment in all staff – in both health and social care, and across all health professional groupings.’

Health Secretary Michael Matheson said the impact of the pandemic, which had led to ‘the worst winter in the history of the NHS’, must be recognised.

He added: ‘the pausing of nonemergency treatment inevitably led to further planned care delays and an increase in waiting times.’

He said that ‘while there is more still to do, there has also been a continued reduction in long waits over 18 months as well as a significant reduction in long waits over two years since targets were announced last July’. Mr Yousaf said NHS recovery was a priority for the Scottish Government but would require ‘difficult choices’.

He warned: ‘there’s going to be a long way to go.

‘the recovery plan is purposely a five-year recovery plan because we know that recovery from the pandemic – which was the biggest shock the NHS faced for almost 75 years – is going to take us not weeks or months but years to recover from.’

BEHIND the latest raft of horrifying NHS statistics lies the suffering and anxiety of patients, many of them desperately ill.

The scale of the problem is severe – there are nearly 780,000 Scots waiting for vital treatments or diagnoses.

That is equivalent to one in seven of the population, a devastating indictment of Humza Yousaf’s legacy.

As health secretary, at every turn, he passed the buck and sought to dodge the blame for the catastrophe engulfing our most important public service.

He and his party are fond of presenting themselves as proud and fearless champions of the NHS, an assertion that was always manifestly untenable.

Now Mr Yousaf has admitted that it will take ‘not weeks or months, but years [for the NHS] to recover from’ the pandemic.

That is unlikely to provide much comfort to patients and their relatives, many of whom have been hit with higher taxes specifically to help the NHS.

How many of those languishing on waiting lists will die needlessly before they get the operations or diagnostic tests they require? Meanwhile, burnt-out and demoralised medics are continuing their tough jobs, displaying stamina and dedication, while being badly let down by the incompetence of their political masters.

For a 21st century healthcare system, this is utterly shameful – and patients deserve better than the complacency and defeatism of Mr Yousaf and his colleagues.

Instead they should launch an urgent rescue plan to prevent another deterioration in NHS performance, with potentially dire repercussions for thousands of families.