NHS in Scotland recovering more slowly from covid pandemic than in England, report warns

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The NHS in Scotland is recovering more slowly from the covid pandemic than in England, a report has warned.

The institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found the performance of the health service in key areas remains worse than before lockdown, and has continued to decline in all but one in the past year.

The report found the elective care waiting list, A&E performance and cancer treatment waiting times have all declined in Scotland.

But the proportion of people waiting six weeks or less for a diagnostic test has improved.

England has seen a similar performance dip compared to before the pandemic, but in the past 12 months there have been signs of improvement in all of the studied areas except the percentage of people waiting more than 18 weeks from referral to elective treatment.

The report found the reason for the difference in health service performance in Scotland was due to a lower number of patients being seen compared to before the onset of covid.

The number of day cases is the only area of hospital care which has returned to pre-2020 levels.

There were 15 per cent less elective inpatient admissions, a nine per cent drop in emergency inpatient admissions, and six per cent fewer outpatient appointments between April and June of this year compared to the final quarter of 2019.

Research economist Max Warner, who wrote the report, said: "The Scottish and English NHS are now recovering differently from the Covid-19 pandemic.

"In Scotland, hospital activity remains below pre-pandemic levels, and waiting time performance has worsened over the last year. The same is not true in England, where performance remains poor but is at least moving in the right direction.

"The UK Government has been honest about the poor performance of the English NHS and has made understanding and improving NHS performance and productivity a major priority.

"It is vital the Scottish Government does the same, particularly given the concerning divergence in recovery between England and Scotland.”

Speaking to journalists after a speech in Edinburgh, John Swinney said the Government is “focused very strongly” on improving the health service.

“Obviously, we have significant challenges to overcome as a consequence of Covid, but we also have got to recognise that… we have comparatively greater challenge in the Scottish population compared to the population of the rest of the United Kingdom,” he said.

"That is an underlying, long standing issue that we have to overcome, which is why we have such an emphasis on the public health measures going forward.”

He added the Scottish Government has to “take the steps” to intervene earlier to improve health outcomes for people in Scotland, saying work is under way to enhance the NHS’s performance.

But Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said the briefing was a “damning indictment” of the Scottish Government’s handling of the NHS.

“Ministers have repeatedly boasted about Scotland’s superior performance to England, but this report makes a total mockery of those claims,” he said.

“Hundreds of thousands of Scots are stuck on an NHS waiting list. Every day people sit in agony at A&E departments, wondering if they will ever be seen.

“This Government must stop making up bogus excuses and finally confront the emergency in front of them.”

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