Top-end interventions featured in Scottish surgery guarantees:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Scottish plans to end the so-called "hidden waiting lists" of surgery patients should provide a boost to the most specialised interventions, some of which have, until now, been excluded from the lists altogether. So said cabinet secretary for health and wellbeing, Nicola Sturgeon, in an announcement to parliament concerning the new surgery management system that will replace Availabilty Status Codes (ASCs) by the end of this year. "Patients will no longer be excluded from waiting time guarantees because their treatment is considered either of low clinical priority or too highly specialised." She acknowledged that some patients have been facing waits of "months and, in some cases, years" for treatment; the new system will also be "fully transparent and open to public scrutiny".