Nicola Sturgeon acused of 'hollow words' over waiting lists

Mr Sarwar accused her of years of “hollow words” after repeatedly promising more action.

Mr Ross raised the case of Carol Cunningham from Dunoon who this week revealed she had been asked to wait until July 2024 to have a phone call with a heart consultant.

The 64-year-old told the Scottish Sun it was “unbelievable” that Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board had asked her to wait two years for an outpatient appointment.

Ms Sturgeon said: “No, I don’t think that is acceptable and I know that a review of that particular appointment – which is a follow-up outpatient appointment, not a first outpatient appointment – is being undertaken and contact with the patient will be made.”

Mr Ross said the total number of people waiting more than two years for treatment had risen from 648 last year to 10,613, a sixteen-fold increase.

Ms Sturgeon said the rise was down to the pressure on the NHS caused by the pandemic.

She told MSPs: “It is the case that waiting times generally and those waiting an unacceptably long time for treatment has increased over the past year, I’m afraid that is the impact of a global pandemic.

“We have, over the past year, seen further waves of Covid that have had a big impact on the number of treatments that can be done in our National Health Service as infection control measures have had to be tightened up and, of course, as a number of staff have themselves had Covid and been off sick.

The First Minister said there had been “tentative signs” of improvement in the health service and Scotland’s NHS was performing better than those in the rest of the UK on waiting times.

Mr Ross also raised the case of Kelso pensioner Alan Turner who had been told he faced a three year wait for a knee replacement in Scotland.

The Scottish health service paid for him to be treated privately in England, but failed to give him adequate aftercare and he is now back on a waiting list for the same problem.

Mr Ross said: “This isn’t the NHS recovery the SNP promised - things are getting far worse, not better. Now, we’re hearing of heart patients being given appointments two years away.

“These longer and longer waiting times are a problem across every level of Scotland’s NHS. 

“Twice as many Scots are waiting over three months for key diagnostics tests compared to last year.

“This morning, the President of the Royal College of Radiology (RCR), Jeannette Dickson, said that for every four-week delay to diagnosis of cancer, your risk of dying increases by about 10 per cent.

“It’s welcome that we can rely on services across our United Kingdom in times of need - but people like Alan should not need to go to England for treatment in the first place.

“Nicola Sturgeon likes to cite Covid as the reason for problems in our NHS, but only this morning, Ms Dickson, said: ‘It’s not the pandemic that has caused the shortage, the pandemic has laid bare the shortage that was there before.’ The First Minister needs to get a grip of this crisis in our NHS before things get far worse in the winter.”

Ms Sturgeon said it was right that the health service paid for private treatment of patients if the NHS was unable to treat them.

Mr Sarwar also tackled health service waits, raising two cases of children suffering long waits for mental health services, including a 14 year old boy with suicidal thoughts.

He accused Ms Sturgeon of years of “hollow words”, quoting back the many times she had previously said such long waits were unacceptable and had to be addressed.

He said 44% of children on the waiting list for specialist mental health treatment were waiting over the 18-week target, including 1,300 children waiting more than a year. 

Thousands of children were falling through the cracks and being forced to “pick up the pieces on their own”, he said.

Ms Sturgeon said the wait was unacceptable but mental health services had been significantly affected by the Covid pandemic.

She said: “These are tough challenges, nobody says otherwise.

“We cannot magic away, as much as we would all love to, the impact of the pandemic but we are supporting health services to recover from the pandemic and see to more patients more quickly and that work will continue with the focus it needs and deserves.”

Mr Sarwar said the figures showed a “systemic problem” that predated the pandemic.

He urged the Scottish Government to reform Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service referral and triage systems, provide GPs with a mental health professional and give all schools pupils – in both primary and secondary – access to face-to-face counselling.

The Scottish Government has plans to give all secondary pupils access to an early intervention counsellor.

Mr Sarwar said: “These are solutions but all the First Minister has done again is offer, year after year, warm words.

“Why does Nicola Sturgeon think it is acceptable to use the same hollow words year after year for eight years while nothing changes, families are left to suffer, and kids are left to pick up the pieces on their own?”

Ms Sturgeon said: “That is not the case. What we see with mental health treatment is more people coming forward for treatment. More people are being seen for treatment but we are building services. Anas Sarwar has put forward what he describes as solutions. He has not said anything today that is not already being done and happening.

“We are right now recruiting 800 additional mental health workers for A&E departments, GP practices, police station custody suites, prisons.

“We’re funding 1,000 additional staff to be in community mental health to build resilience there to ensure that every GP practice does have access to a mental health service.

“We are recruiting 320 additional staff in CAMHS. We already see CAMHS staff at a record high. All of this is being done. More people are coming forward but we are seeing more people treated.”