Scots with heart disease treated quickly, others are still waiting

3 Mar 05
Scottish patients have the UK's shortest waiting times for the diagnosis and treatment of coronary heart disease, according to the latest government statistics.

04 March 2005

Scottish patients have the UK's shortest waiting times for the diagnosis and treatment of coronary heart disease, according to the latest government statistics.

However, the overall figures produced by the Scottish Executive's information statistics division show that a record number of Scots are waiting for NHS treatment.

At the end of last year, 113,612 people were waiting for inpatient and day-case treatment – an increase of 1,590 on 2003.

The figures sparked a political row. The Scottish National Party accused the Executive of failing to deliver on waiting list pledges and the Tories claimed that lists had gone up by 23,550, or 26%, since 1999, while those in England had fallen by 20%.

Health Minister Andy Kerr dismissed the criticisms as 'meaningless'. He stressed that the Executive could have brought waiting times down by concentrating on treating people who had shorter waits at the expense of those who had been waiting longer. There had been a 30% fall in the number of people who had to wait more than six months to be seen, Kerr said.

The Executive also issued figures showing that at the end of last year there were 118 people per 100,000 of population waiting more than six months for in-patient or day-case treatment in Scotland. The corresponding figures were 136 for England and 794 for Wales.

Kerr also announced a capital investment programme for health services. From April this year, a total of £426m will be spent on health care services, including medical equipment, improved access to health screening services and expenditure on the final phase of the Beatson Oncology Centre in Glasgow.

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