Highlands and Islands MSP, Edward Mountain MSP today called on the SNP Government to set out its plans to remobilise NHS Highland and ensure lengthening treatment backlogs are reduced urgently post-pandemic.
Currently, all elective operations have been suspended in NHS Highland to free up capacity to treat patients with Covid-19.
Edward Mountain MSP raised the issue today during the First Minister’s covid-19 statement in the Scottish Parliament.
Edward Mountain MSP asked: “First Minister, elective orthopaedic surgery in the Highlands stopped a long time ago due to Covid-19.
“The current waiting list for orthopaedic surgery is in excess of 2,000 people and even if we were running at full operating capacity would still be increasing.
“Two weeks ago a constituent told me she was going to have to wait six years for her new knees.
“First Minister, patients and consultants in the Highlands would like to know how the huge and ever increasing orthopaedic backlogs will be reduced post the lockdown, can you tell them?”
The First Minister replied: “This is hugely important and I don’t want anybody to be waiting anything like six years for a knee replacement or any other operation. So we’ve got to do two things. Firstly, we’ve got to reduce the number of beds and the amount of capacity in our health service right now that is being taken up by Covid. That is why suppressing this virus to the lowest possible levels is really important.”
She added: “We have to remobilise and invest in the capacity that will get through the Covid backlog of cases as quickly as possible. And there’s a real focus in the Scottish Government in doing that but I cannot emphasise enough the importance of doing that first part so we again have a health service that is focused on the wide variety of needs and doesn’t have such a significant part of its capacity dedicated to dealing with Covid.
Following First Minister’s Questions, Edward Mountain MSP commented:
“I welcome that the First Minister agrees with me that waiting 6 years for a knee operation is unacceptable post the pandemic.
Urgent action will need to be taken by the SNP Government to ensure lengthy treatment backlogs can be reduced in NHS Highland.
The health board has not been given the best start though. The new Elective Care Centre, which could have played a vital role in reducing the treatment backlog this year had it opened on schedule, has been pushed back to 2022 thanks to the SNP’s dithering and delay.
Until this vital facility is ready to open, we need to know what interim plans are in place to reduce waiting lists in NHS Highland.”
