Shocking waiting list rises show SNP's warm words aren't fixing the NHS
Under the SNP, thousands of patients are left wondering for months or even years whether or not to be scared about their condition
Imagine you are feeling unwell and it becomes so bad you need to see a GP. After days of calling at 8am, you finally see a doctor, who refers you to a specialist.
You wait and wait for an appointment… and a year later, you are still waiting. This was the case for 63,406 Scots waiting for outpatient appointments in the year to March 31.
In May 2024, John Swinney took over as First Minister from a failing Humza Yousaf. In January at the launch of the Scottish Government’s NHS Recovery Plan – the fifth in four years – Swinney pledged with much fanfare to reduce waiting lists.
‘Seen without delay’
But a year after Swinney was installed as First Minister and four months after he made his promise, the figures tell a different story.
In the 12 months to March 2025, the number of outpatients waiting more than a year for an appointment rose by 34 per cent, while those waiting for an inpatient appointment rose by 2.9 per cent. And those waiting more than a year for a diagnostic appointment rose by 15.6 per cent.
Swinney promised to reduce waiting times – but across the board they have risen. Outpatient appointments are key in identifying symptoms that might or might not be serious. Stomach pains, skin conditions, breathing problems – these are all the kinds of symptoms where a GP might refer a patient to a specialist.
The NHS Scotland’s own 2017 report The Modern Outpatient called them “a critical point in the pathway to diagnosing cancer early – or providing reassurance that there is nothing to worry about”, going on to note that “this is therefore a time when patients need to be seen without delay”.
Yet under the SNP, thousands of patients are left for months or even years wondering whether or not to be scared.
Broken promises
The shocking rise in outpatient waits is just a snapshot of the way that our NHS is fraying at the seams under the SNP. And it’s just the latest of the SNP’s broken promises on health.
They promised to hire 800 more GPs – yet the number of patients per GP rose by 227 in a decade, while the number of whole-time equivalent GPs actually fell.
Less than half the Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Centres promised in the SNP’s 2021 manifesto have appeared. Also missing in action are the new scanners that would allow hospitals to make faster diagnoses – and a recent freedom of information request by Scottish Labour found that hundreds of scanners are more than 10 years old.
Diagnosing and treating conditions is not always straightforward, and the NHS relies on thousands of specialists working together to do so. It is a machine that only works if every part is kept in running order, with the huge surge in outpatient waits the equivalent of a warning light coming on.
The truth is that if the SNP government had a good idea we would have seen it by now. After 18 years in government, the SNP must stop resting on its own rhetorical laurels and start paying attention to what the data is telling them.
There are hundreds of thousands of patients out there waiting for them to do so.
Jackie Baillie is MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader and her party’s spokesperson for health
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