An official website of treatment waiting times at Scottish hospitals is “potentially misleading” and disguises the true extent of delays, the statistics regulator has found.
Patients queueing for some types of treatment may experience “a much longer wait than is suggested by the figures”, according to the UK Office for Statistics Regulation.
Humza Yousaf, the Scottish health secretary, announced the new web portal where patients can research waiting times in their area, promising it would provide “people with some reassurance on the possible length of their wait”.
However, The Times previously revealed how orthopaedic surgeons were deeply concerned that the figures used gave patients a false impression.
They responded to the launch of the data on social media with incredulity and described it as