Wednesday, February 17, 2010

The sun shines again for SNP MSP Nicola Sturgeon as 96% of cancer patients get treatment within 62 days



















Dear All

Harold Wilson once said, ‘a week is a long time in politics’!

For the last few weeks SNP MSP Nicola Sturgeon must feel it is an eternity with all the bad press she has received with SNP ‘munchesgate’ and the Abdul Rauf case being the talk of the steamie.

However, when she isn’t being the MSP for sunny Govan, she is the Minister for health.

You could say that health is the flagship success story of the SNP Government.

So some good news for her, NHS Scotland has beaten its target for the treatment of urgent cancer cases.

New figures show yet again that consistent and measurable progress is being made on the health front under her leadership.

It’s a partnership that has delivered.

96% of patients who were urgently referred and subsequently diagnosed with cancer in June-September 2009 were treated within 62 days.

The national target is 95%.

It’s a good gain when you think that it was 84.5% in the first quarter of 2007.

Ms Sturgeon said;

"This progress has now been sustained for a whole year and today's figures show the average wait is 35 days, meaning the majority of patients urgently referred are actually treated within six weeks”.

As usual rather than take personal credit she added;

"Staff across the health service worked extremely hard to achieve this milestone for the first time at the end of 2008, and they have continued to work very hard indeed to keep this progress going”.

As for future goals she went further;

“we know there's more to do and are working towards new targets by the end of 2011, including the ambitious goal to start treatment for all cancer patients within 31 days of their decision to treat."

She is too good a Minister for Scotland to lose, particularly in the health brief.

The sun does shine again for her.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow Univerity

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