Waiting Times

NHS Forth Valley Waiting Times Report

Our Internal Audit Report on Waiting Times Arrangements has now been published:

• Internal Audit Waiting Times Report December 2012 (pdf)

 Treatment Time Guarantee

The Patient Rights (Scotland) Act advises that once a patient has been diagnosed as requiring inpatient or day case treatment and has agreed to that treatment, that patient's treatment must start within a maximum of 12 weeks of the treatment having been agreed.

NHS Forth Valley will offer a treatment date within this guarantee to all eligible patients. There are some exemptions to this guarantee,

• Assisted reproduction
• Obstetrics services
• Organ, tissue or cell transplantation whether from living or deceased donor
• Designated national specialist services for surgical intervention of spinal scoliosis
• The treatment of injuries, deformities or disease of the spine by an injection or surgical intervention (exclusion until October 2013).  

Further information

• Download our Q&A Leaflet (pdf)
• Download the poster (pdf)

18 Weeks - the Referral to Treatment Standard

From January 1 2008, NHS Forth Valley introduced a new way of counting waiting times for appointments and admissions to hospital. The new system was designed to ensure that

• all patients are treated fairly
• waiting times are kept as short as possible
• patients are treated within an 18 week period

It is effectively a 'clocking' system with a start time given along with a guarantee that the patient is treated within 18 weeks.

Around 5,000 people a year fail to turn up for outpatient appointments in NHS Forth Valley but this new procedure places responsibilty on people to give reasonable notice when they are unable to attend.

Hospitals will give patients reasonable notice of appointments and offer 2 alternative dates.

If a patient cancels, the waiting time will be counted from the day of cancellation.

If a patient fails to turn up without giving prior notice, the waiting time will be re-set to zero from the day they were supposed to attend.