Scottish Government has been urged to get to grips with the huge backlog in operations as fears grow that rising covid case numbers could make the situation even worse.
Official statistics out today show that there was a growth in the NHS activity in the three months to the end of June - but the number of patients seen was still well down on the 2019 average.As of June 30, as many as 115,253 patients were awaiting a diagnostic test – 30.3 per cent higher than the average before the pandemic.Outpatient activity is also down by some 22 per cent on pre-pandemic figures with 396,771 people awaiting their first outpatient appointment, of which some 39.1 per cent had already waited over 16 weeks.Some 96,557 people are also currently waiting on.