Dumbarton Constituency MSP, Jackie Baillie, has urged NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to make better use of the Golden Jubilee hospital. Last year it was revealed that the health board send just 0.05% of patients to the Golden Jubilee for orthopaedic services, despite lengthy waiting times for orthopaedics across the board area.

At NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s Annual Review meeting on 11 March, the constituency MSP asked health board chiefs why they had almost the least access, per head of population, to the Golden Jubilee than other health boards across Scotland, despite serving the largest population size.

The MSP highlighted that she had been contacted by a number of constituents who had been forced to wait up to 52 weeks, in pain, for orthopaedic treatment and were never offered access to the Golden Jubilee.

Jackie originally raised the issue in the Scottish Parliament last October. The MSP told the Cabinet Secretary for Health that “despite thousands of patients waiting in pain for increasing lengths of time from nine months to a year, the board sends a tiny proportion of cases to the Golden Jubilee.” In response, the Cabinet Secretary told the chamber “I also agree that the Golden Jubilee hospital, our national waiting times centre, is not always utilised by colleague boards as well as it should be, and that is something that the Scottish Government is taking an active interest in.”

Jackie said:

“It is simply unacceptable that patients are being expected to wait for up to a year for treatment in Greater Glasgow and Clyde while the health board refuses to make proper use of the Golden Jubilee.

“NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are consistently missing waiting times targets, leaving patients waiting in pain for treatment.

“The Cabinet Secretary agreed that Health Boards should make better use of the Golden Jubilee, yet NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde ignore this advice.

“I hope that the health board will begin to make better use of the treatment slots available and request more slots if need be.”