NHS hits waiting time targets for patient scans

Published on Tuesday 26 May 2009 10:21

NHS Lothian has hit new government targets on key diagnostic tests such as MRI and CT scans.

No patients were asked to wait more than six weeks for tests, and many received their scans well before the Scottish Government's waiting time target of six weeks.

The board of NHS Lothian will be given a performance report on a number of measures at its meeting tomorrow.

The statistics cover the period up until the end of March 2009. The report shows accident and emergency departments across Lothian have continued to hit government targets, with 98 per cent of all people seen and treated within the official target time of four hours.

NHS Lothian also achieved the new national target of a maximum 12-week wait from referral to seeing a consultant for non- emergency cases for most patients. Almost 40,000 people were treated by NHS Lothian within 12 weeks in the quarter from January to March 2009.

This compares with March 2002, when over 7,000 people waited over 26 weeks for treatment.

Jackie Sansbury, director of Strategic Planning, NHS Lothian, said: "We are grateful to our staff who are continuing to strive to deliver even faster care."

A small number, 31, were either too ill to receive treatment or were unavailable and so could not be treated by the end of March.

There were eleven patients waiting for highly-specialised scoliosis (spine) treatment.

NHS Lothian investigated sending these patients to other locations for treatment within the 12-week waiting time but it was judge clinically better for them to be seen by NHS Lothian's experts.