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| Version 3 | Version 4 |
|---|---|
| Patient 'removed' to meet targets | Patient 'removed' to meet targets |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| A plastic surgeon has taken patients off his waiting list to help meet Scottish Government targets. | A plastic surgeon has taken patients off his waiting list to help meet Scottish Government targets. |
| NHS Tayside consultant Alex Munnoch said bosses told him to remove names as a "simple solution" to people waiting more than 18 weeks for treatment. | NHS Tayside consultant Alex Munnoch said bosses told him to remove names as a "simple solution" to people waiting more than 18 weeks for treatment. |
| The case has caused a political row after being raised at First Minister's Question Time in Holyrood. | The case has caused a political row after being raised at First Minister's Question Time in Holyrood. |
| Lib Dem Leader Nicol Stephen produced a letter from the surgeon to one patient informing her of the "bad news". | Lib Dem Leader Nicol Stephen produced a letter from the surgeon to one patient informing her of the "bad news". |
| First Minister Alex Salmond said he and Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon would look into the case and deal with anything that affected the patient that might have been wrongly done. | |
| This is a shocking and scandalous situation - achieving the first minister's targets by dumping patients off the list Nicol StephenScottish Liberal Democrat leader | |
| The case emerged a day after Ms Sturgeon said that NHS boards were working to meet waiting targets. | |
| According to the statistics, on 31 December 2007 no patient waited more than 18 weeks for a first outpatient consultation following a GP referral or for inpatient or day case treatment. | |
| In the letter, Mr Munnoch, based at Dundee's Ninewells Hospital, stated that a "significant" number of patients were in breach of the 18-week target. | In the letter, Mr Munnoch, based at Dundee's Ninewells Hospital, stated that a "significant" number of patients were in breach of the 18-week target. |
| He also explained that there was no funding to pay for the liposuction treatment, which the patient, who was not from the Tayside area, was due to receive for medical reasons. | He also explained that there was no funding to pay for the liposuction treatment, which the patient, who was not from the Tayside area, was due to receive for medical reasons. |
| Mr Stephen produced the letter during question time | |
| The specialist told his patient that she might wish to contact her local MSP, adding: "I will continue to keep your details with a view to trying to offer you surgery at some point in the future, with or without management's consent." | |
| Mr Stephen told MSPs: "This is a shocking and scandalous situation - achieving the first minister's targets by dumping patients off the list." | |
| He demanded of the first minister: "Will he promise to end this manipulation of the figures and ensure that those patients who have been devastated by letters like this now receive treatment from his government." | |
| Mr Salmond told the former deputy first minister: "The whole purpose of the direction the SNP and this government is travelling in is to remove the hidden waiting lists, which were so much a feature of the government in which Nicol Stephen was such a prominent member." |