Swinney: No 'shortcut' to NHS wait time reduction

John Swinney has said there is no "shortcut" to faster diagnosis and treatment in the NHS.

In an interview with BBC Scotland News, the first minister accepted that "some people have had to wait far too long" for certain treatment.

But he insisted the Scottish government was working to expand capacity and increase operations and that "progress is being delivered".

The NHS is still working to recover from the Covid pandemic and, as of June, about one in nine people in Scotland is on an NHS waiting list.

Speaking ahead of his party's annual conference in Aberdeen, Swinney also addressed the case of an eight-year-old girl with a serious condition who has been told to expect a 19 month wait for her surgery.

The girl's mother has told BBC Scotland News the delay meant her daughter could not live a normal life due to her declining kidney function.

The first minister said he could "totally accept" the worry and anxiety caused by these circumstances and offered to personally look in to the case.

Swinney said the Scottish government was taking all the steps it can within its resources to ensure NHS performance matches the expectations of the public.

The most recent Scottish social attitudes study covering the period up to 2023 found that 69% of those asked felt that NHS performance was getting worse.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine also claimed more than 800 deaths in Scotland last year were believed to be linked to long A&E waits.

Swinney said: "What we are doing, what we are focusing on, is about doing all we can to reduce waiting times and make sure more people are being treated and of course the most recent data shows, for example, is we've had record numbers of operations.

"We've had record numbers of hip and knee operations and these are some of the things people have had to wait quite a long time for.

"There is no shortcut. We need to make sure we get a flow of patients in to A&E, so they can get assessed quickly, so they are able to be released home. We have very high levels of patient discharge from hospital, we take all of these steps to make sure people receive care that they require."

'Counterproductive and damaging'

Swinney also said he wanted to avoid industrial action by hospital doctors who are to ballot for a strike.

He said the Scottish government would "work constructively" with the British Medical Association (BMA) to resolve the dispute.

He was also asked about immigration during the interview.

Swinney said the UK debate was "counterproductive and damaging" and a "positive approach" was needed to help grow Scotland's working age population.

He said we should "embrace migration" and that doing so was "something we should be proud of".

Swinney said: "I think we have to have a rational and considered debate about migration because I can't talk to a single business sector or area of activity in our country that doesn't tell me they are short of people.

"We have very low unemployment in Scotland today and our various sectors are short of people and we've got a working age population that is not large enough to support our economy and our activities.

"Scotland has always been a welcoming country, an inclusive country, that we bring people together, and that's the type of Scotland I want to live in."