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Rob Gibson MSP Hits Out At Long
Patient Waiting Times In Highland
15 February 04
SNP MSP Rob Gibson for the Highlands and Islands has reacted angrily to
provisional patient waiting time figures that show that patients in the
Highlands and Islands have to wait over a month more than the average to
be seen. The figures were revealed by Health Minister Malcolm
Chisholm after a question by SNP MSP Linda Fabiani.
The figures for Highland shows that
Outpatients/first appointments have to wait on average 72 days to be seen
(the average for the region should be 43 days). Inpatients/day cases
(for Highland) have to wait 75 days (average 40 days).
Mr Gibson said...."These figures make
for grim reading and are a sad indictment of the Scottish Executives
health policy. It is clear that all over Scotland patients are suffering
at the hands of inadequate provision and especially in the Highlands."
He added..."Waiting lists will only rise
if the Scottish Executive pushes ahead with its centralisation programme
of health services."
"This is a situation that no one wants
and there must be a concerted effort by everyone to try and reduce the
lists and that can only be done by listening to those in the front line.."
The Question At Scottish Parliament
S2W-5778 - Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP) : To ask the Scottish
Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-4805 by Malcolm Chisholm
on 19 January 2004, whether it will publish the data for each NHS board
and whether it will publish the mean values for each board in each future
release of waiting list statistics.
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm (10
February 2004): The following table shows for each NHS board the
equivalent figures given in answer to S2W-4805. ISD Scotland have no plans
to publish arithmetic mean values for each board for the reason given
earlier in the answer to S2W-4812.
First Outpatient Appointments Inpatients/Day Cases
| |
First Outpatient Appointments |
Inpatients/Day Cases |
| |
Median Wait (days) |
Mean Wait (days) |
Difference |
Median Wait (days) |
Mean Wait (days) |
Difference |
| NHS Scotland |
54 |
86.9 |
-32.9 |
41 |
80.4 |
-39.4 |
| Argyll and Clyde |
52 |
79.4 |
-27.4 |
32 |
70.9 |
-38.9 |
| Ayrshire and Arran |
50 |
76.3 |
-26.3 |
48 |
82.9 |
-34.9 |
| Borders |
47 |
74.5 |
-27.5 |
35 |
70.1 |
-35.1 |
| Dumfries and Galloway |
54 |
74.3 |
-20.3 |
49 |
85.4 |
-36.4 |
| Fife |
66 |
89.3 |
-23.3 |
45 |
91.7 |
-46.7 |
| Forth Valley |
64 |
110.5 |
-46.5 |
49 |
90.8 |
-41.8 |
| Grampian |
55 |
86.6 |
-31.6 |
35 |
68.5 |
-33.5 |
| Greater Glasgow |
55 |
90.5 |
-35.5 |
34 |
74.9 |
-40.9 |
| Highland |
43 |
75.2 |
-32.2 |
40 |
75.5 |
-35.5 |
| Lanarkshire |
62 |
99.8 |
-37.8 |
50 |
86.6 |
-36.6 |
| Lothian |
49 |
82.9 |
-33.9 |
42 |
87.6 |
-45.6 |
| Orkney Islands |
23 |
37.5 |
-14.5 |
21 |
44.5 |
-23.5 |
| Shetland Islands |
46 |
58.3 |
-12.3 |
36 |
59.2 |
-23.2 |
| Tayside |
52 |
82.7 |
-30.7 |
43 |
83.2 |
-40.2 |
| Western Isles |
36 |
47.8 |
-11.8 |
45 |
72.9 |
-27.9 |
Notes:
1. Information relates to the quarter ending 30 September 2002 and should
be considered provisional.
2. In-patient /Day case data is sourced from the SMR01 dataset. Outpatient
data is sourced from the SMR00 dataset, and covers referrals from a GMP/GDP
to a consultant led outpatient clinic.
3. 'Median wait' means the average wait
All answers to written parliamentary questions are
available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can
be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa |