NHS Scotland waiting times: Are NHS waiting times really 'improving', Humza Yousaf?

During Humza Yousaf’s maiden speech to the Scottish Parliament, the new First Minister claimed NHS waiting times were “improving”. But is that really true?

Mr Yousaf has given himself wiggle room by not specifying which metric he was referring to – be it A&E waiting times, cancer treatment waiting times, or waits for routine or elective surgeries.

Take the former, for example – A&E waiting times. The Scottish Government aims for all patients who present at emergency departments to be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

The closest the Scottish Government has come to achieving this was in the week ending December 27, 2015, when 95.9 per cent of all patients were seen within the four-hour target.

Humza Yousaf's claim that waiting times are improving has been challenged. Picture: Peter Byrne/PA Wire

However, under Mr Yousaf’s tenure as health secretary, the waiting times fell to their worst on record, interestingly also over the Christmas period. During the week ending December 18 last year, just 55.1 per cent of patients were seen within four hours. Anecdotally, some patients faced huge waits approaching four days.

At the time, Dr John-Paul Loughrey, of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Scotland, told me the waiting times were leading to “something in the order of 50 excess deaths in Scotland every week”.

There has been marginal improvement, with the latest figures showing around 64.7 per cent of patients are being seen within four hours. But that will still be contributing to excess deaths, so while there are green shoots of improvement, emergency healthcare is still failing to adequately care for Scottish citizens.

Mr Yousaf may have been referring to extremely long waits for outpatient procedures. The number of people waiting more than two years for an outpatient appointment halved between September and December last year, but this was during a period where excessive waiting times and delayed discharge in other areas of the healthcare system was contributing to premature deaths.

Humza Yousaf during First Minister's Question. Picture: Getty Images

So while Mr Yousaf may be correct – by way of being intentionally vague – to say waiting times are improving, the metrics that really matter to the livelihood of Scots are still far below the standard they should be.