This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
Listen
Further reductions on longest NHS waits
27/05/2004
Progress is being made in bringing down the longest waiting times for hospital treatment, according to new figures published today.
Latest quarterly figures published by the Information and Statistics Division (ISD) show that on 31 March 2004:
* All inpatient/day case patients with a guarantee were treated within nine months - with one exception.
* Numbers waiting more than six months fell sharply - down to 5,729, the lowest figure recorded and around half the number (10,882) two years ago.
* No patient was waiting more than 24 weeks for coronary revascularisation.
Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm said:
"We are delivering on our promise to cut the longest waits and there has been good progress towards reducing them further.
"The reality is that if you need urgent NHS treatment you will get it right away. More than half of hospital patients are treated immediately and never join a list. And of those who do, half are seen within one month and nearly three quarters within three months.
"The clear priority of the Scottish Executive and the Scottish people is to tackle the misery of those facing the longest waits.
"We could reduce the median time to virtually zero simply by treating those at the top of the list.
"But we have been honest enough to say that a trade-off for making sure everyone is treated inside nine months is that others may have to wait a few days longer.
"That's our priority and we're delivering on it.
"There is also good progress - in the long term and not just quarterly seasonal fluctuations - in cutting the numbers waiting more than six months.
"I do recognise, however, that there is much still to be done to reduce long waits for outpatients.
"The Centre for Change and Innovation is tackling this head on with a number of initiatives working with local clinical teams in key pressure areas like dermatology, ENT and better booking systems. I will be making an announcement tomorrow on orthopaedic outpatients."
The one breach of the nine-month guarantee during a period when 150,000 patients had operations, was caused by a clerical error in not entering a patient's details correctly. NHS Western Isles quickly contacted the patient to apologise and the operation was carried out within a month.
The statistics on NHSScotland acute waiting, waiting times and waiting lists on 31 March 2004 are available on the ISD website at: www.isdscotland.org
Under the Partnership Agreement, from the end of 2005 new guarantees of a maximum six months wait will apply to both inpatient/day case and outpatients.