Scottish Labour says long NHS waits are more than 800 times as common in Scotland as in England, based on its analysis of publicly available figures. It states Scotland has nearly 15,000 ongoing waits of two years or more, about one case for every 367 people, while NHS England reports 182 waits of more than two years. The figures include patients waiting over two years on outpatient, inpatient or day-case lists.

Labour said the total of waits over two years is 82 times higher in Scotland — about 864 times higher once adjusted for population. “Thousands of Scots have been stuck in limbo for years on end desperately waiting for the help they need, while others have emptied their savings accounts or gone into debt paying for private care.” “The SNP has no excuses – this Government has broken the founding promise of our NHS and failed to ensure Scots have a health service they can count on in their hour of need.” “Our NHS cannot survive a third decade of SNP incompetence – but Scottish Labour has a plan to rebuild our NHS and end the two-tier system the SNP has created.”

Health Secretary Neil Gray said the Scottish Government remains laser focussed on reducing waiting times. In the latest quarter, 64.6% of new outpatient appointments were attended within 12 weeks — an improvement from 61.3% in the previous period – while 40.5% of those still waiting had done so for less than 12 weeks. “We’ve also seen progress in inpatient and day-case admissions, with 57% taking place within 12 weeks, up from the previous quarter, while a third of those still waiting had done so for less than 12 weeks.” “We know, however, that some people are simply waiting too long and we are determined to drive improvements.” “We are investing more than £110 million this year to make it easier and faster for patients to get access to the treatment they need. This targeted funding will deliver more than 213,000 additional procedures and appointments this year.”