Hospital activity in Scotland remains stubbornly below
pre-pandemic levels, despite Scottish Government targets to
increase activity and increases in staffing. In April to June
2024, hospitals treated 6% fewer inpatient and day cases and
delivered 6% fewer outpatient appointments than pre-pandemic. The
Scottish Government's NHS recovery plan, published in 2021, aimed
to increase inpatient and day case activity to 15% above
pre-pandemic levels this year. One reason for the failure to
increase activity above pre-pandemic levels is that patients now
have a much higher average length of stay in hospital, in part
because of challenges with delayed discharges. But in England,
the story is different, with many measures of hospital activity
now substantially above pre-pandemic levels.
Ahead of the Scottish Budget, IFS researchers have updated their
analysis of NHS activity performance in Scotland. Across many
measures of waiting time performance, NHS performance in Scotland
– as in England – is worse than pre-pandemic. But over the last
year, most measures of performance in Scotland have deteriorated,
while in England most have improved. The elective waiting list,
long waits at A&E, long waits for cancer treatment and long
waits for diagnostic tests are all still rising in Scotland,
while all are falling in England.
Max Warner, Research Economist at IFS and author of the
briefing, said:
‘The Scottish and English NHS are now recovering differently from
the COVID-19 pandemic. In Scotland, hospital activity remains
below pre-pandemic levels, and waiting time performance has
worsened over the last year. The same is not true in England,
where performance remains poor but is at least moving in the
right direction. The UK government has been honest about the poor
performance of the English NHS and has made understanding and
improving NHS performance and productivity a major priority. It
is vital the Scottish Government does the same, particularly
given the concerning divergence in recovery between England and
Scotland.'
Read the briefing
here.
