Huge increase in wait for Fife hospital appointments

More than 8,000 people have been waiting more than 12 weeks for their first outpatient appointment, compared to just 500 waiting at the end of March, new figures from NHS Fife board papers have revealed.

The number of people waiting more than 18 and 26 weeks is also up, despite referrals being 50 per cent below average.

That could now lead to evening and weekend appointments being introduced to help clear the backlog, but that there may be another increase in waiting times as referrals get back to normal.

Routine appointments across Scotland, including surgery, were cancelled during lockdown to allow hospital staff to focus on dealing with the pandemic.

This resulted in people waiting longer for diagnosis and treatment.

In Fife, this meant waits beyond the Scottish Government’s 12-week target for more than two thirds of locals referred for an outpatient appointment.

June figures revealed just 15 per cent of patients requiring non-urgent treatment received it within 12-weeks.

Cancer waiting times increased a little but the backlog has since been cleared.

NHS Fife said services were now starting to return to normal.

At this month’s Fife Health Board meeting, Claire Dobson, director of acute services, outlined the scale of the challenge.

She said: "Significant work is underway to prioritise our waiting lists and theatre activity has also increased and we are seeing improvement in our performance there.

"New outpatient referrals have increased but they are still below average. There has been a significant impact on waits.

"The capacity tool that has been outlined, along with prioritising our waiting lists, are both supporting improvements too.

"Priority is being given to our urgent referrals. Cancer services have been a priority throughout this period and services have been maintained."

Appointments re-started in the middle of July and precedence is being given to cancer patients and those who require urgent face-to-face reviews.

Services such as CT and MRI scans, which were operating between 70 per cent and 75 per cent capacity at the end of July, are now working extra hours to try and catch up.

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