Local Labour MSP Colin Smyth has revealed that the SNP waiting time law for NHS treatment has been broken 720 times in the Scottish Borders since the beginning of the year.

Figures from the Scottish Government’s Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland show that between January and June this year 720 patients had to wait longer than 12 weeks.

In 2012, the SNP Government introduced the Treatment Time Guarantee, which gave patients a legal right to treatment within 12 weeks for conditions such as knee and eye operations.

Colin Smyth has said that the figures show that years of SNP mismanagement is now having an impact on patient care across the Borders.

Colin Smyth MSP said, “The SNP Government made a promise to patients in the Borders that they would have a legal right to treatment within 12 weeks. That promise and indeed the law has been broken 720 times so far in 2018 already. The result is patients are left in pain, waiting for treatment for 12 weeks or more.

It’s clear that the SNP’s mismanagement of our NHS is now seriously affecting patient care. It’s vital that our NHS sees an end to the recruitment crisis, gets the resources it desperately needs and that our NHS staff get the support they deserve. Scottish Labour have set up a workforce commission to deliver a blueprint on how we end the recruitment crisis and start fixing our NHS.”