Paisley hospital patient has waited more than three years for treatment

A patient at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley has been waiting more than three years to receive treatment.

According to the Daily Record, the patient has, up until now, waited 1,199 days for an urology procedure.

The treatment, which would need the patient to be admitted, is the longest wait of anyone needing an inpatient procedure at the hospital.

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However, waits are also extremely long for those able to have their treatment and return home the same day, with the longest outpatient treatment wait at the RAH currently sitting at 550 days - that's for a patient needing a respiratory medicine procedure.

The information was obtained by Paul O'Kane MSP who said "patients are being asked to accept the unacceptable." The Labour politician - who gathered the information in a freedom of information request - insists the Scottish Government has still not presented an adequate plan to tackle long waits for planned care.

The West Scotland MSP added: “A waiting time turning from hundreds of days into thousands of days is simply an unacceptable thing for a patient to tolerate but sadly we know this is happening up and down the country and across every health board.

"No one should have to wait in pain, no one should have to wait in uncertainty but with the lack of proper workforce planning and a strategy to tackle waiting lists this crisis will continue under the SNP.

“My heart goes out to every patient who is being asked to accept the unacceptable.

"It’s time for Neil Gray and John Swinney to listen to the doctors and nurses on the frontline and come back to the Holyrood chamber with a plan that will actually reduce these staggering wait times and allow our NHS to cope with the incoming winter pressures.”

Last year, chiefs at the hospital opened a same day admissions unit to ensure lifeline surgeries could go ahead despite winter pressures.

Created and run by a team of nurses, the unit has been set up to carry out surgical procedures that allow patients to go home on the same day. It has been able to offer offer biopsies, lumpectomies, mastectomies and stoma surgeries for people with cancer at a time of unprecedented pressure on NHS services.

Health Secretary Neil Gray said: “While unusually long waiting times are often the result of personal or medical reasons, we are working intensively with NHS Boards to reduce the length of time people are waiting for appointments and treatment.

“Services continue to face sustained pressure, and this is not unique to Scotland - with similar challenges being felt right across the UK. We are also working to address delayed discharge in hospitals with an increased focus on effective discharge planning.

“This year’s Scottish Budget provides more than £19.5 billion for health and social care and an extra £500 million for frontline boards. We have allocated £30 million to boards this year to tackle waiting lists which is expected to deliver 12,000 new outpatient appointments, around 12,000 inpatient procedures and over 40,000 diagnostic procedures.”

A spokesperson for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said: “As is the case throughout the country, the Covid-19 pandemic had a significant impact on our ability to deliver planned care. We have been working since then to recover and to prioritise those with the most urgent need, and those who have been waiting the longest.

“We apologise to anyone who has had to wait longer than they may have expected.

“We would like to thank our staff as they continue to work extremely hard to address these challenges and for all they are doing to look after the needs of people in Renfrewshire.”

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