South of Scotland Labour MSP Colin Smyth has condemned the Scottish Government after new figures released last week (25 February) revealed that the SNP’s NHS Treatment Time Guarantee was broken 1,896 times in Dumfries and Galloway during 2019.

The Treatment time Guarantee (TTG) specifies that all people waiting for an inpatient or day case procedure must be treated within 12 weeks and was enshrined in law in by the Scottish Government in 2012.

But the legal target has never been fully met and during the last three months of 2019, 19 per cent of the patients treated by NHS Dumfries and Galloway waited longer than 12 weeks.

During 2019, the Treatment Time Guarantee was breached more than 80,000 times across the whole of Scotland, bringing the total number of breaches since 2012 to 272,293.

South of Scotland Labour MSP Colin Smyth said the continuing failure to meet the Treatment Time Guarantee is another symptom of the SNP’s mismanagement of Scotland’s NHS.

Colin Smyth said: “In 2012, the SNP made a promise to the people of Scotland that they would have a legal right to treatment within 12 weeks. That law was broken 1,896 times in Dumfries and Galloway in 2019 alone.

“Patients in this region deserve quick and efficient treatment, not long waits that harm their work, family life, mental and physical wellbeing.

“Scotland’s NHS has suffered for too long. Under 13 years of SNP mismanagement we have seen waiting lists sky-rocket and health board after health board being forced into special measures.

“Our NHS staff do a fantastic job day in day out to deliver the best care they can but they are being let down. If the Scottish Government want to set targets they need to start properly resourcing our NHS so they can deliver those targets .”

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