Waiting times worse in the NHS than they are on the railways
By Lizzie Healey
Jackie Baillie MSP has called for the Scottish Government to provide more support and resources for our NHS as the SNP’s waiting times law has been broken over 70,000 times 2018.
The figures, from ISD Scotland, show that the 12-week Treatment Time Guarantee was broken 71,611 times in the last year. In NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, the law was broken 16,193 times in 2018.
The Treatment Time Guarantee, brought in by the SNP Government, was supposed to give patients the legal right to treatment within 12 weeks.
The MSP said: ““Behind these shocking figures are real people, waiting in pain and distress for the treatment that they need.
“The SNP promised patients in Scotland that they would have the legal right to treatment within 12 weeks. Yet the constant under-resourcing of our health service and a staffing crisis means that this guarantee simply cannot be met.
“The Health Secretary has stated that the 12-week Treatment Time Guarantee will not be met until 2021, so, until then, patients are expected to just wait.
“This is simply not good enough. Scotland needs a government that will invest in vital services like health and social care.”
She has called on the Scottish Government to get ScotRail back on track after the train company plunged to its lowest performance level under the SNP.
The official figures follow months of delays, cancellations and short-formed trains on Scotland’s railways.
Passengers travelling to and from Dumbarton, Balloch and Helensburgh continue to be affected.
The key statistics from the Office of Road and Rail show that the company has the worst public performance measure (PPM) moving annual average since 2006/07; the worst third quarter PPM since 2010/11; PPM failures caused by ScotRail up six per cent year-on-year and PPM failures due to train crew up 147% year-on-year.
While train passengers on some routes across the country have been additionally compensated by ScotRail for the failures in recent months, the train company has refused to extend this scheme to local passengers, stating that the excessive problems in this area weren’t caused by train crew shortages.
Jackie Baillie said: ““For months we have heard stories of passengers experiencing constant delays and cancellations, and being squashed into carriages on trains that are short-formed.
“And it is hard pressed passengers who are paying the price for this SNP Government’s failure to run our railways properly, with a price increase green lighted by the SNP despite the train company consistently failing to meet targets.
“Many of my own constituents have been late for work, university and college and even hospital appointments due to the problems on the train network.
“It is time that the SNP backed Labour’s plan to bring our railways back into public ownership.”