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Plans to axe hidden waiting lists SNP to end 'hidden waiting lists'
(about 15 hours later)
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon is expected to outline plans to abolish hidden waiting lists for NHS care in a statement to the Scottish Parliament. Scotland's so-called hidden waiting lists for NHS patients will end in January 2008, Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon has announced.
The proposals would see so-called "availability status codes" scrapped by the turn of the year. She said the new system would ensure all patients received treatment within waiting time guarantees.
Almost one third of the 78,000 people waiting for an operation in Scotland are on a hidden waiting list. Availability Status Codes mean patients are not guaranteed treatment within a certain timescale.
Ms Sturgeon will set out the new rights and responsibilities that patients can expect. Labour health spokeswoman Margaret Curran said the Scottish Government's move was based on her party's plans.
Hidden waiting lists mean patients are not guaranteed treatment within a certain timescale. She also disputed claims that ASCs, applied to about 35,000 patients by March 2006, were "hidden", arguing that the figures were regularly published.
This can be because their operation is not considered a priority, their case can only be dealt with by a small number of specialists or they are ill or on holiday when their appointment is scheduled. Waiting guarantee
In a statement to the Scottish Parliament, Ms Sturgeon said the system was unfair to patients and designed to keep them in the dark.
She added: "It fails to treat patients as partners in their own care with a right to know about their own treatment. And it completely undermines confidence in the NHS."
The health secretary said patients would no longer be excluded from waiting time guarantees because their treatment was considered either of low clinical priority or too highly specialised.
She said who become unavailable for treatment will no longer lose their waiting time guarantee and will instead have their period of unavailability taken into account.
Patients who currently could lose their waiting time guarantee for cancelling an appointment will instead be given two opportunities to rearrange appointments.