Scottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser has raised his concerns on the latest waiting times for cancer patients in Tayside, describing the data as “alarming.”
He was commenting following the release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) of the table of waiting times for patients seeking their first NHS appointment. This revealed that the number of patients in Tayside who waited 84 days or more increased from 10.2% in the period from October to December last year to 16.9% in the period from January to March this year.
The latest figures also show the percentage of patients in Tayside who had to wait between 63 to 83 days for their first referral also rose from 18.3 to 19.9 in this time frame.
PHS have stated that the 62-day standard was not met by any NHS board in Scotland. The 62-day standard applies to patients who are urgently referred with suspicion of cancer by a primary care clinician or general dental physician. Patients are referred by one of the national cancer screening programmes and direct referrals to hospital are made where the signs and symptoms are consistent with the cancer diagnosed.
Commenting, Mr Fraser said: “I find the cancer waiting time figures for Tayside to be alarming. They show that many patients waiting for their first appointment are having to wait lengthy times to be seen by medical staff.
“Everyone knows someone who has been affected by this awful disease and how critical it is that treatment is started as quickly as possible to increase survival chances. The SNP have totally failed to prioritise cancer care and now far too many patients are not being seen in time.
“Scotland lags behind comparable countries for cancer survival rates and it should be a source of shame for SNP Ministers that well over a quarter of cancer patients are waiting over two months before starting treatment.”
Mr Fraser continued: “The Cabinet Secretary for Health, Neil Gray MSP, needs to get a grip on cancer waiting times and he should start by adopting our bold plans that would deliver a modern, efficient, and local health service.”
