Press Release

7^th February 2002

McNeil Welcomes £1,232,000 to Cut Argyll & Clyde Waiting Times
Welcoming today’s announcement of an extra one and a quarter million pounds to cut waiting times and delays in the NHS locally, MSP for Greenock & Inverclyde, Duncan McNeil, said:

"I am glad that the Scottish Parliament is making cutting waiting times for tests, diagnosis and treatment a top priority. This additional investment is further proof of that.

"But, while the investment is welcome, money on its own is not enough. We must make sure it is put to work. To deliver real results, it needs get to the front line as soon as possible."

The money for Argyll and Clyde is part of a £20 million nation-wide investment. It is the latest to be announced from the £86 million allocated to health from pre-Budget consequentials and includes:

• An extra £15 million for local NHS Boards to make progress towards the 2003 target of reducing the maximum waiting time for an operation to 9 months, and help meet traditional NHS cost pressures around staffing and drugs; and
• A national £5 million "flexible fund" to support the work of the National Waiting Times Unit in clearing bottlenecks – in both in-patient and outpatient waiting and utilising spare capacity in the NHS, private and voluntary sector.

The £5 million to be held under the direction of the National Waiting Times Unit and invested from April will be targeted on:

• Reducing waits for angiography and revascularisation operations like angioplasty to 12 weeks and 24 weeks respectively, by making best use of spare NHS and private sector capacity, in line with Scottish Health Plan targets;
• Working with the Scottish Cancer Group to help ensure that the maximum improvements in cancer waiting times are delivered from the £40 million national cancer investment plan;
• Reducing the excessive waiting times for tonsillectomies that have built up while concerns over patient health and safety and issues around medical instruments and potential contamination are resolved; and
• Encouraging the effective use by NHS Boards of all spare NHS capacity, for example by tackling bottlenecks in out-patient waiting times through more targeted employment of nurses and other health professionals in tasks like endoscopy that have previously been done by doctors.

Commenting, Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm said today he wanted the NHS to "match a single-minded determination to tackle waiting with an innovative and flexible approach to delivering improvements."
ENDS

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