Patients are being told they could wait up to nine months for operations because the NHS is struggling to cope with demand, MSP Jackie Baillie has said.
In a reply to Ms Baillie’s enquiries on behalf of local patients, the chief executive of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Robert Calderwood, confirmed the orthopaedic service was “currently under significant pressure due to an increased demand for emergency and elective surgery”.
When a patient is added to the waiting list for an operation they receive a letter explaining that the Treatment Time Guarantee promises to provide treatment within 12 weeks.
However several local patients have contacted the Dumbarton constituency MSP in recent months because they have been waiting well over the 12 week target.
New figures published this week reveal the number of Scots seen within the 12 week treatment target at the end of 2016 has fallen by almost 10% since the same quarter in 2015.
The number of people waiting for an outpatient appointment has increased by more than 10% over the same period.
Ms Baillie said: “I have met numerous patients from Dumbarton, Vale of Leven and Helensburgh at my recent advice surgeries who have been waiting months longer than they should have done for knee, hip and back operations.
“Many of these patients have been unable to go about their daily lives due to the severe pain they have been living with for months.
“The health board has already confirmed that services are under ‘significant pressure’ and it is time for the SNP Health Secretary to get a grip on waiting times.”
The people to have contacted the MSP include Alexander Hutton from Shandon, who was recently informed that he will have to wait 40 weeks for orthopaedic surgery. Mr Hutton said:
“I received a letter a few months ago telling me that my operation would take place within 12 weeks.
“I phoned towards the end of February for an update because I hadn’t heard anything and they told me that the waiting list was 40 weeks and even then there was no guarantee.
“The thing that bugs me is that they send out the first letter promising 12 weeks even though they know it’s not true. It’s just camouflage.
“If you have to wait 40 weeks for an operation then why can’t they tell you in the first place?”
And a 70 year-old man from Cardross was put on the waiting list for a knee replacement operation in August 2016.
He finally received his operation at the end of February after waiting 30 weeks – more than double the time of the 12 week guarantee.
He describes his life as being ‘put on hold’ since August. He suffered from constant pain and could not walk more than 100 yards without feeling sick.
Yet she wants to remain in a Union under a Tory government that threatens to dissolve the Scottish Parliament. She does know that the Tories will dismantle the NHS, doesn’t she?