WIREDGOV

Waiting times figures published.

The NHS in Scotland has treated more than 875,000 patients within the 12 weeks treatment time guarantee, since the legal guarantee was introduced in October 2012.

The figure comes as official waiting time statistics for April to June 2015 show that 94.9 per cent of inpatients and day-case patients were treated within 12 weeks.

This is slightly up on the previous quarter when 94.7 per cent of patents were treated within 12 weeks.

More than 77 per cent of those not seen within 12 weeks were patients in NHS Lothian, NHS Highland, NHS Grampian and NHS Tayside.

These health boards are working on implementing plans to ensure delivery of the TTG by the end of the year. The Scottish Government has supported boards experiencing challenges through the £10 million investment from the £31.5 million Performance Fund in 2015/16. Funding was put in place at the start of this financial year with improvements due to show through to performance figures shortly.

Recent funding of £1.5 million for the Golden Jubilee National Hospital to carry out an additional 1,550 operations each year will come into force in September. This will mean patients from across Scotland will receive faster treatment, helping health boards manage increases in demand and clear backlogs.

In addition, NHS Tayside has received £1.2 million directly support the delivery of waiting times.

Later this week the Scottish Government will also launch a new outpatient delivery and improvement programme which will support health boards and health and social care partnerships deliver more integrated and accessible outpatient services with the aim of lowering waiting times.

Outpatient figures for the same period show that 89.7 per cent of patients waited 12 weeks or less for an appointment.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said:

“Health boards across Scotland continue to deliver some of the lowest waiting times on record, with more than 875,000 patients treated within our 12 week treatment time guarantee since it was introduced in October 2012.

“However, more clearly needs to be done to maintain and improve on performance in order to meet the rightly demanding targets we have set. Patients should expect nothing less.

“With an ageing population the NHS in Scotland is facing different challenges to a decade ago and it is vital that we support health boards as they continue to adapt to meet these new demands.

“We are also taking a series of actions to boost performance, cut waiting times and deliver on the commitments made. For example, we are investing in targeted support where it is needed most. This includes funding of £1.5 million to the Golden Jubilee which will enable the hospital to deliver an extra 1500 operations as well as recruit additional clinical staff and allow for weekend surgeries.

“This will help free up capacity at other health boards and mean that patients from across Scotland get faster treatment.

“This is on top of the £10 million investment from our Performance Fund which went to NHS Lothian, NHS Highland and the Golden Jubilee National Hospital. This funding is being used to increase capacity, support additional consultants and allow for weekend surgeries and we would expect this to be reflected in waiting time performance going forward.

“NHS Grampian has also invested £5 million of its uplift share to support the delivery of the 12 week treatment time guarantee in 2015/16.

“Later this week I will also be launching our outpatient delivery and improvement programme which will aim to better the services outpatients receive and in turn improve waiting times.

"We know there is still substantial work to do, which is why we have the solid fundamentals of record staffing and record funding in place to help our NHS ensure all patients in Scotland are treated as quickly and as effectively as possible.”

Also published yesterday was the 18 week referral to treatment standard, which shows that 88.3 per cent of patients were seen and treated within the time frame in June 2015,

In addition, 89.3 per cent of patients waiting for key diagnostic tests were seen in six weeks or less as of 30 June 2015.

Notes To Editors

Latest waiting time figures are available here: http://www.isdscotland.org/

The 12 week treatment time guarantee is the maximum waiting time patients should wait for planned treatment. It was introduced in October 2012 for all patients due to receive treatment as an inpatient or on a day case basis.

During the quarter ending June 2015 there were 4034 waits over 12 weeks. The health boards with the highest level of breaches were Grampian (536), Highland (713) and Lothian (1,233) and NHS Tayside (646)). This equates to 77.5 per cent of all waits over 12 weeks.