Question reference: S6W-15607
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 3 March 2023
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Current status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 17 March 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the current average waiting time is for a gynaecological consultation in (a) Scotland and (b) each NHS board, and how it plans to reduce these waiting times.
Answer
Statistics relating to the waits patients experience for a new outpatient attendance and inpatient or day case appointment at NHS Board and specialty level are published by Public Health Scotland (PHS) up to 31 st December 2022 and can be found using the following links:
New Outpatients - https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/18024/newop_feb23.xlsx
Inpatients/Daycases - https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/17838/ipdc_feb23.xlsx
The statistics published in the tables above include the median and 90th percentile waits in days for:
- New outpatients waiting (‘1.1 Table’)
- New outpatients seen (‘1.2 Table’)
- Inpatients/day cases waiting (‘2.2 Table’)
- Inpatients/day cases seen (‘2.1 Table’)
We continue to work intensively to clear long waits, which have been exacerbated by the impact of the global pandemic and are determined to provide NHS Boards with support necessary to drive improvements. This includes targets announced in July 2022 to address the backlog of planned care, maximising theatre productivity, optimising Golden Jubilee National Hospital capacity, and the delivery of the £1 billion NHS Recovery Plan to support sustainable improvements and new models of care, such as the National Treatment Centre Programme.
We are also working with the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CFSD) and boards to embed regional and national working to ensure that long waiting patients can access treatment more quickly.