The Scottish Government has announced that it is committing targeted investment to ensure that productivity is improved and waiting lists are reduced across the nation’s health system.
For the first quarter of the new financial year, £30 million of funding is being put in, with this amounting to £300 million over the course of the next three years. This builds further on the First Minister’s announcement that £100 million every year will continue to reduce inpatient and day-case waiting lists by approximately 100,000 patients.
Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf said:
“As it set out last October, we are committed to accelerating treatment in our NHS and reducing inpatient and day-case waiting lists by an estimated 100,000 patients over the next three years, backed by planned investment of an extra £100 million annually.
“This initial investment of £30 million will target reductions to national backlogs that built up through the pandemic, including orthopaedic treatment, diagnostics for cancer referrals and patients with the longest waits.
“This is all part of our programme to drive up productivity and tackle waiting lists, supported by the Centre for Sustainable Delivery. Together, our actions will further enable NHS Scotland to maximise capacity, build greater resilience and deliver year-on-year reductions in the number of patients who have waited too long for treatment.”
The Centre for Sustainable Delivery is a unit that works across Scotland to identify ways that the health services can be transformed sustainably through good practices such as innovation, collaboration, and clinical leadership.
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