Seòmar agus comataidhean

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. More detailed information on cancellations and rescheduled appointments will be held locally by NHS boards.

The Scottish Government is responsible for setting the strategic policy direction for NHS Scotland and its workforce. Operational matters, including the staffing of individual services, are the responsibility of each NHS Scotland Health Board.

At a local level, the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 places duties on Health Boards to ensure that at all times suitably qualified and competent individuals are working in such numbers as are appropriate for the health, wellbeing and safety of patients, the provision of high-quality care and the wellbeing of staff.

The Scottish Government works with a stakeholder group (which includes NHS Education for Scotland, the British Medical Association, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and various Health Board representatives including regional workforce planners) to undertake annual reviews of the number of specialty training places (for resident doctors) needed across all specialties in order to meet anticipated future service demand and consultant need.

Workforce statistics, including statistics on certain roles within ophthalmology services across NHS Scotland, can be found at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence.

The exact number of facilities in Scotland that can perform cataract surgery is not centrally held. Table 1 lists NHS hospitals in Scotland where cataract procedures were performed in 2024, as recorded in either the inpatient or outpatient datasets.

Please note that this is not an exhaustive list of all locations in Scotland where cataract procedures are performed. Only locations where procedures were both carried out and recorded are included. Some National Treatment Centres may not appear in the table if they do not have a unique location code or if they operate as extensions of existing locations.

Information on procedures paid for privately, either by the patient or a private insurer, with no NHS involvement, is not available to Public Health Scotland.

Table 1: NHS hospitals where cataract procedures were performed in 2024.

Under the Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011 (legislation.gov.uk), an eligible patient is to start to receive agreed treatment within the 12-week Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG). Health Boards must take all reasonable steps to ensure they comply with this legislative guarantee.

However, the pandemic has seen the NHS under the most severe pressure in its 77-year existence. Pausing of non-urgent activity has inevitably led to a build-up of both the number of patients waiting for treatment as well as increasing the length of wait for patients.

We know many people are still waiting too long and this is not good enough. We are determined do more and our Budget which will provide a record £21.7 billion for health and social care, with more than £110 million allocated to health boards to help tackle the longest waits for procedures and operations. This includes more than £12 million for ophthalmology.

This funding means 213,000 more appointments will be delivered this year than in 2024-25, exceeding our Programme for Government target of delivering 150,000 extra appointments by more than 60,000. By March 2026, we expect no-one to wait longer than 12 months for a new outpatient appointment, inpatient treatment or day case treatment.

Under the Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011, an eligible patient is to start to receive agreed treatment within the 12-week Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG). Health Boards must take all reasonable steps to ensure they comply with this legislative guarantee.

However, the long-term impacts of the pandemic, as well as acute seasonal pressures and unprecedented levels of inflation across the public sector, has seen the NHS under the most severe pressure in its 77-year existence. This has affected almost all aspects of NHS care, including the number of planned care appointments and procedures the health service has been able to provide.

Our Budget will provide more than £110 million to health boards to increase capacity and address backlogs of treatment as we work towards achieving the 12 week TTG.

We have also committed to clearing all waits in all specialities over 52 weeks by March 2026.

The information requested is not collected by the Scottish Government.

As outlined in the Mental Health in Primary and Community Care Progress Report (Dec 2024), we remain committed to delivering increased mental health and wellbeing workforce capacity in general practice when it is feasible to do so. As the member will be aware, the Emergency Budget review meant that recruitment of additional roles was paused. We are prioritising investment to maintain mental health capacity in primary care through Action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027 and the Primary Care Improvement Fund.

The Mental Health in Primary and Community Care Progress Report also sets out what is needed to improve access to support, assessments and treatment from general practice. It contains a range of actions, including improving access to adult mental health treatment – expanding the NHS 24 Mental Health Hub, by December 2025, to provide access to digitally enabled psychological interventions and therapies for people who may benefit from early treatments.

This is in the context of wider support for general practice: the Scottish Government has already allocated over £1.3 billion to primary medical services this year with a further £56 million on course for pay rises and to provide new preventative services.

This follows an increase of £59.6 million last year to meet the Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration recommendations and to cover population growth as well as a further £13.6 million to help GP practices meet the costs of inflationary pressures and deliver local enhanced services.

We recognise long waits are unacceptable and I apologise to all patients waiting too long for treatment. We are determined do more and our Budget which will provide a record £21.7 billion for health and social care, with more than £110 million allocated to health boards to help tackle the longest waits for procedures and operations. This includes more than £12 million for ophthalmology.

Work is ongoing to support local surgical teams to increase efficiency and consequently the number of patients that can be treated across the cataract surgical pathway, in line with the Royal College of Ophthalmologists guidelines.

The role of the Scottish Government is to provide policies, frameworks and resources to NHS Boards in order that they can deliver services that meet the needs of their local population. NHS Boards are responsible for deciding the distribution of funding that they receive from the Scottish Government across the services they manage, including the funding of cataract activity.

This year, as part of our additional £110 million investment to help NHS Boards tackle the longest waits for procedures and operations, more than £12 million has been ring-fenced for ophthalmology.

The Scottish Government does not currently have any plans in place to remember former patients of historic asylums who were buried in unmarked graves. Details of any burial carried out in a burial ground by a burial authority are recorded in the statutory burial register so that the deceased are not forgotten.