New target for test waiting times

Tests subject to minimum waiting time standards will include MRI scans

Patients waiting for key diagnostic tests including MRI and CT scans will have shorter waiting times from next year, the health secretary has pledged.

Nicola Sturgeon said the current nine-week maximum waiting time would be cut to six weeks by the end of March.

An Audit Scotland report found the number of patients waiting more than nine weeks for key tests had fallen from 10,638 to just two since 2006.

But the report said there was room for improvement over waiting times.

Ms Sturgeon said the report confirmed waiting times were coming down.

She added: "This is considerable progress and across the service the efforts taken are continuing.

"Reducing the waiting time to six weeks will mean improved care for patients and I am determined that NHS Scotland does not lose sight of this.

"Work is also under way to improve data collection, and to drive improvements through benchmarking radiology services and other improvement techniques, to enable us to further improve the planning and efficiency of diagnostic services."

'Better information'

The Audit Scotland report found the NHS had made "significant progress in reducing waiting times for eight key radiology and endoscopy tests.

But it warned that despite the improvement, there was still room for health bosses to make better use of the services, and said the NHS does not have some of the basic information it needs to ensure the services are provided efficiently.

It said: "The NHS needs better information to manage these high-cost services and to compare efficiency across health boards."

The report, Review of NHS Diagnostic Services, said NHS boards were unable to provide the watchdogs with some basic information.

"For example, a third of the endoscopy units we reviewed could not provide information on the number of planned sessions that they actually used in 2006-07," it stated.

The eight tests subject to the national maximum waiting times standard are MRI, CT, non-obstetric ultrasound, barium enema, upper GI endoscopy, colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy and cystoscopy.