Question reference: S6W-24596
- Asked by: Dr. Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 19 January 2024 Registered interest
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Current status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 February 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what time-sensitive targets it has for bringing waiting times for any NHS service into line with relevant standards.
Answer
Waiting times for planned care services is one of many metrics that contributes to the monitoring of performance and effectiveness across NHSScotland.
There have been several changes to waiting time targets and standards over the last 30 years. The Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011 established a 12 week Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG) written into legislation for eligible patients who are due to receive planned inpatient or day case treatment from 1 October 2012. The Act states that eligible patients must start to receive that treatment within 12 weeks (84 days) of the treatment being agreed. This guarantee is based on completed waits where a patient is removed from the list after being admitted for treatment.
To support the above guarantee, from 31 March 2010 no patient should wait longer than 12 weeks for a new outpatient appointment at a consultant-led clinic. More information on this can be found on the Public Health Scotland website section on waiting times .
More recently, in July 2022 new targets were set out for NHSScotland to address the impact of the pandemic on long waiting times for planned care. Public Health Scotland publish progress against these targets quarterly: Stage of treatment waiting times - Inpatients, day cases and new outpatients quarter ending 30 September 2023 - NHS waiting times - stage of treatment - Publications - Public Health Scotland