Phoneline: New service will also provide patients with advice on healthcare provision. Pic: © STV
Scots patients will be guaranteed treatment within 12 weeks under new healthcare rules published on Thursday.
The Patients Rights (Scotland) Bill will also bring in the legal right to complain about healthcare issues, while a specialist advice and support service will also be established.
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said the legislation was designed to improve the NHS experience, making it more patient-focussed.
She said: "Putting patients' rights into law will send out a strong signal to patients, healthcare workers and NHS Scotland that patients should be at the heart of everything the health service does.
"Introducing a legal waiting time guarantee and setting up a patient advice service demonstrate the importance we place on creating an NHS which has patients at its centre."
The Treatment Time Guarantee will ensure that patients begin receiving care within 12 weeks of it being agreed with their doctor. The pledge will cover planned and elective treatment, both for inpatients and outpatients.
The Patient Advice and Support Service (PASS) will be staffed by Patient Rights Officers who will be able to provide advice about healthcare provision as week as taking patient complaints. Health Boads will have a duty to direct complaining patients to PASS.
Ms Sturgeon continued: "Patients' rights are of paramount importance and they should be given the prominence and priority that primary legislation affords. The bill will ensure that patients recognise their rights and have independent support and advice to ensure these are met.
"It is absolutely right that patients know what they can expect from their health service and know what recourse they have if they do not get care and treatment delivered in the way they are entitled to.
"By introducing a right to make a complaint, we aim to simplify the process and help to place the patient at the centre of this, with the reassurance that if they have concerns about care or services, they are exercising their legal right in raising a complaint.
"The bill is one of a range of measures we are taking forward such as the Quality Strategy, the Patient Experience Programme and elected health boards which will improve patients' experience of the NHS and make them partners in their own care."
