I'M SORRY FOR NHS DELAYS

Health Secretary apologises for waiting lists and will do everything possible to avoid winter hospital crisis

- VIVIENNE AITKEN

UNDER-FIRE Health Secretary Humza Yousaf has admitted long NHS waiting lists are “unacceptable” and apologised to patients facing lengthy delays for treatment.

In an exclusive interview with the Record, he said: "If you have waited for an ambulance too long, waited for treatment for too long, I am sorry." 

With one in every seven Scots sitting on an NHS waiting list, Humza Yousaf doesn't have his problems to seek, but in an exclusive interview with Daily Record Health Editor Vivienne Aitken, he vows to leave no stone unturned to avoid a winter hospital crisis

HEALTH Secretary Humza Yousaf has told Scots "I am sorry" over long waits for treatment in our crisis-hit NHS.

With three-quarters of a million people now waiting for treatment, appointments and tests, Yousaf told the Daily Record in an exclusive interview: "Everybody languishing on a waiting list is clearly an unacceptable situation.

"If you or a family member have waited for an ambulance too long, waited for treatment for too long, I am sorry.

The under-fire Health Secretary told the Record he would leave "no stone unturned" to try to avoid a winter crisis in our hospitals.

With waiting times at an all-time high, the ambulance service in crisis and a series of damaging strikes planned over pay, Yousaf insisted he was on top of the situation and rejected opposition calls to quit.

If strikes go ahead, Yousaf said he could draft in other emergency services to ferry people to hospitals And he also admitted he would consider suspending non-emergency surgery if hospital staff walk out.

He said: "We will continue with health boards to put in contingency should the worst happen.