A TOP medic called for a boost in NHS recruitment in Scotland today, warning that he does not see the government’s backlog targets as practically achievable.
In April, ministers promised £30 million to tackle waits for care, aiming to deliver an extra 12,000 procedures, 40,000 additional diagnostic tests and 12,000 new appointments.
But new figures show waiting lists in Scotland have instead soared to an all-time high, with over 864,366 patients waiting either for an appointment, tests or hospital treatment by the end of June.
Dr Alan Robertson, chairman of the British Medical Association’s Scotland’s consultants committee, said NHS staff have not yet seen how the extra funding is “feeding through.”
He also expressed concern about whether the government’s targets are realistic.
When asked on BBC Radio Scotland if they are achievable, he said: “I don’t practically see how they are, really,” warning that NHS waiting lists seem to be getting worse.
The SNP government has so far failed to achieve any of its NHS backlog targets set two years ago.
Among them was to eradicate waits of more than two years by the end of September 2022 and more than one year by the end of September 2024.
But there are still 7,146 people stuck waiting over two years, and 37,972 waiting at least one.
Currently, there are 155,558 patients waiting for hospital treatment and 558,896 people waiting for an outpatient appointment.
Waiting lists in all categories had increased over the last year, Public Health Scotland found.
Dr Robertson said that adequate staffing is needed to meet the targets.
“What we have seen is obviously increasing vacancy rates,” he said, adding that if the NHS can “recruit to fill all these gaps, that would make a difference.
“From our perspective, there have unfortunately been years of underinvestment in the consultant workforce, and there has been too much spending on agency and locum staff.
“What we need to do is actually properly recruit and retain permanent staff so we are not spending large sums of money on these temporary, sticking-plaster approaches.”
Scottish Health Secretary Neil Gray said: “We know that people are waiting too long, but we are determined to provide the necessary support to drive improvements and will continue to target resources to reduce waiting times, particularly for the people waiting longest for treatment.”
