Ministers knew the construction of Scotland's new national treatment centres (NTC) would be delayed in September last year but kept it quiet for months.
Labour accused the SNP of delaying the public announcement to give the Scottish Government time “to find a way to save face.”
The ten NTCs were a major plank of the Scottish Government’s post-Covid NHS recovery plan to bring down waiting lists, particularly for orthopaedic operations.
They were supposed to deliver an additional 40,000 inpatient and day case procedures by 2025/26.
READ MORE: NHS Scotland buildings projects paused as budgets squeezed
Only three are operational, in NHS Highland, NHS Fife, and phase one of the Golden Jubilee expansion in Glasgow.
Forth Valley and Golden Jubilee Phase 2 are due to open later in 2024, but NTCs in Ayrshire, Aberdeen, Perth, Livingston, Lanarkshire and the new Lothian Eye Pavilion are on hold.
Health boards were told by the Scottish Government in February to "pause" work on any building projects that had not yet passed certain development milestones.
They said a new infrastructure plan would be published in the spring; however, that has now been pushed back until December.
Documents obtained by Labour through Freedom of Information show officials knew in September 2023 that the developments would have to be paused in the autumn of last year.
A paper sent to the then first minister, Humza Yousaf, and the then health secretary, Michael Matheson, dated September 2023 and submitted on 6 October 2023, states: “The proposals set out in this [Recovery Road Map – Planned Care] paper will pause the development of the next phase of the NTC programme and the PfG commitment to open 10 NTCs (plus the replacement Edinburgh Eye Pavilion).”
It is not clear if Ministers accepted the recommendations at this time.
READ MORE: Why is it hard for ScotGov to admit NHS recovery failure?
On October 6, the first minister was dealing with the fallout from his party’s disastrous result at the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election which had been declared in the early hours of the morning.
Over a week later Humza Yousaf announced at his party’s conference a plan to cut NHS waiting lists by 100,000 by 2026.
By late November, another paper by government officials argued that the capital funding for the NTCs was not available and the immediate priority should be the current NHS waiting lists.
In one paper, an official claims Mr Yousaf asked “how do we handle what will be (another) commitment we are seen to be rolling back from?
Commenting on the revelations, Scottish Labour’s Health Spokesperson Dame Jackie Baillie said: “This correspondence shows that the SNP Government knew the future of its flagship network of National Treatment Centres was up in the air as early as September and spent months trying to find a way to save face.
“While the SNP has been building hospitals in the clouds, Scots have been dealing with the reality of longer waiting times that were never going to be fixed by the NTCs alone."
READ MORE: NHS Scotland backlog hits 840,000 as inpatient wait jumps
Dame Jackie added: “The advice from NHS officials is clear – the SNP must prioritise dealing with the backlog and giving our hardworking doctors and nurses the equipment they need.
“The UK Labour government is providing enough funds for 160,000 more NHS appointments but it’s up to the SNP to spend that money wisely and that starts with being transparent about its spending plans.”
The Scottish Government has been approached for comment.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said:
“As we have said consistently, due to significant increases in construction costs due to inflation, and a lower than expected capital grant from the UK Government, a capital review is currently underway.
"We plan to publish a revised Scottish Government infrastructure investment pipeline alongside the 2025-26 budget."
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