NHS PAYS £11M FOR CANCER DELAYS

Campaign group lays blame on staffing levels | Every payout 'reveals story of personal tragedy'

- VIVIENNE AITKEN

SCOTLAND'S NHS has paid out an eyewatering £11million in compensation to cancer patients whose treatment was delayed.

Health boards have paid dozens of people since 2019-20 following lengthy waits for lifesaving diagnoses and operations.

A total of £11,442,443 went on at least 49 separate settlements across the last five years.

The news of massive payouts comes as the Scottish Government faces serious questions over failing to meet key cancer waiting time targets.

Last night Brenda Eadie, of NHS Workers United for Scotland, said the shocking new figures showed understaffed hospitals were leading to mistakes and delays in cancer treatment.

She said: "These delays are down to staffing levels, there is no doubt about it, but £11.5million is a huge number.

"It could have been avoided if they had only put the budget money where it should have gone in the first place.

"If they had put money into a drive to recruit and retain permanent staff then that list of patients would certainly have been much lower."

She added: "If the NHS had enough staff to begin then with people wouldn't have suffered or even died as patients wouldn't have been kept waiting.

"More people will die as the situation is getting to the point whereby this time next year there will be no NHS Scotland.

"There is no staff and no budget to employ staff as we've already seen with our new nurses not being able to get jobs."

Of those that replied to the request for information, Lothian Health Board paid out the largest amount in Scotland, with £4,694,631 in compensation going to patients and their families since 2019.