South Scotland Labour MSP Colin Smyth has revealed that the SNP’s waiting time law has been broken over 2,500 times across Ayrshire and Arran so far this year.

Latest figures published yesterday (27 November) by the Scottish Governments Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland show that 2,534 patients across Ayrshire and Arran have waited longer than 12 weeks for treatment.

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.

The figures showed an increase of 563 patients waiting longer than the Treatment Time Guarantee compared to the same time last year.

The shocking figures come just a month after the SNP Health Secretary Jeanne Freeman confirmed the SNP Scottish Government plans to continue failing patients by breaking its own law until 2021 at the earliest.

Colin Smyth MSP said, “The SNP promised patients across Ayrshire and Arran that they would have a legal right to treatment within 12 weeks. That promise which was enshrined in law has been broken 2,534 times this year so far.  Behind these figures are patients who are being left in pain and distress while waiting patiently for the treatment they deserve.

Our NHS staff are simply not getting the support they need from the SNP. I very much fear that they figures will only get worse before they get better as the SNP Health Secretary is quite happy to wait until 2021 for the law to be followed. The SNP must ensure that more money is provided for our NHS in it’s upcoming Budget to ensure we can start to tackle the challenges facing our NHS in Ayrshire.”