Patients waiting up to a year for cancer treatment under SNP

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP today said that the SNP government isn’t giving people the best chance of surviving cancer as he revealed the longest waits for first treatment of cancer, with patients waiting up to a year.

Scottish Liberal Democrats analysed waiting times from an urgent referral with suspicion of cancer to first treatment for patients in every health board.

This analysis shows that:  

• In the quarter ending March 2025, a patient in NHS Lothian waited 393 days for treatment.  

• In the same period, patients in Grampian, the Borders, and Dumfries and Galloway waited 11 months for treatment.

• Between the quarter ending March 2015 and March 2025, the longest wait in NHS Borders has more than quadrupled, increasing from 76 days to 343 days.

• Over the same period, the longest wait in NHS Dumfries & Galloway has more than trebled, from 99 days to 347 days.  

• Since March 2015, the longest waits in NHS Ayrshire & Arran, NHS Orkney and NHS Shetland have more than doubled.

It comes as Scottish Liberal Democrats revealed that the median waiting time for cancer treatment across the whole of Scotland, 52 days, is the worst on record.

In June, Public Health Minister Jenni Minto admitted that “people could be dying as a result of later cancer diagnoses”.  

Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

“All across Scotland, the SNP government isn’t giving cancer patients the best chance of survival. These statistics show huge increases in waiting times to begin treatment after an urgent referral with suspicion of cancer, stretching up to a year.

“International studies show Scotland falling behind. The fact that SNP ministers are now admitting that their failures may have caused people to die shows just how badly they have got this wrong.

“Access to screening programmes, diagnoses and treatment is a postcode lottery across the country. Scottish Liberal Democrats want to see ministers who will move mountains to bring down waits and get to grips with the gaps in tech and staff.

“Patients deserve better than an SNP government that keeps letting them down. Only the Scottish Liberal Democrats will bring a real vision and a real plan for delivering the care they need.”