Children still left ‘worried and waiting’ for NHS treatment, paediatricians warn

Children have been left “worried and waiting” for treatment in Scottish hospitals, with just one health board meeting a key target, leading paediatricians have warned.

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) said on Friday the number of children facing up to a 12-week wait for an appointment has remained consistent over the past year.

Its report, titled Worried And Waiting, published last year said paediatric waiting times in Scotland had doubled since 2012, with almost half of all patients waiting more than 12 weeks in 2023 compared with 1% of patients in 2012.

A year later, fresh data published by the RCPCH shows there was some improvement in waiting times between September 2023 and September 2024, but it warned thousands of children are still waiting too long for treatment.

The latest data shows there has been a 16% decrease in the overall number of ongoing waits for outpatients, inpatients, and day cases in Scotland.

RCPCH says this leaves the total number of ongoing paediatric waits at 8,830.

The ongoing waits for up to 12 weeks remained constant between September 2023 and a year later, going from 5,375 to 5,385 – a percentage change of 0.2%.

There was a 9.9% decrease in ongoing waits over 12 weeks for paediatrics over that period, but there are still 3,445 children waiting to receive treatment.

The number of ongoing waits exceeding 12 weeks decreased by 32.9% – from 5,137 in September 2023 to 3,445 in September 2024.

Over the same time, the percentage of ongoing waits longer than 12 weeks decreased from 48.9% to 39%.

The number of health boards achieving the national standard rate in September 2024 was one out of 14, with only NHS Lanarkshire having hit the mark.

But more than half of health boards have seen a decrease in waits over 12 weeks.

The report also said NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Highland, NHS Shetland, and NHS Western Isles have seen an increase in the proportion of waits over 12 weeks.

Last year, RCPCH Scotland set out three core recommendations to the NHS.

They were: to conduct a full review of the child health workforce to ensure it has the correct resources and funding available to tackle waiting times; improving the collection and utilisation of child health data, and improving access to primary care and cross-sector, community-based services.

It said these recommendations have not been fulfilled, but remain as important as they were when they were first put to the NHS.

RCPCH officer for Scotland, Mairi Stark, said: “Despite some progress being made, no child should endure prolonged wait times.

“As a paediatrician, I have witnessed the profound harm these delays can inflict on children and their families, and how they can exacerbate long-term health inequalities.

“A 16% decrease in children waiting reflects the fantastic efforts of the workforce, but ultimately the Scottish Government’s failure to implement the recommendations we made in our Worried And Waiting report a year ago has hindered further progress.

“Children deserve substantial policy action now – they are Scotland’s future and cannot afford to wait for incremental improvements. We want to see the targets met across Scotland. Investing in children’s health today ensures a brighter, healthier future for all. The time to act is now.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We want patients to be treated as soon as possible. However, we know many are facing unacceptable waits and we are determined to do more. That is why we are investing £200 million to reduce waits and enhance capacity. We are also looking to optimise the full force of the £21.7 billion committed through the Scottish Budget to health and social care to improve performance.

“We are making progress, with latest figures showing improvements in new outpatient, diagnostic and inpatient/day case waiting times performance. Diagnostic waits at their lowest since October 2021. We have surpassed our pledge to carry out 64,000 procedures by end of March 2025 through £30 million of targeted funding, with boards reporting delivery of 75,500 appointments and procedures.”