Shadow Health Secretary Donald Cameron has called for the SNP Government to implement an urgent treatment recovery plan after the latest figures show a massive drop in the number of hospital patients being seen.

Figures published by Public Health Scotland show that, in the quarter ending 30 June 2020 there were only 15,239 patients seen under the SNP’s treatment time guarantee.

This is a staggering drop from the same quarter last year when 71,613 were seen.

In addition, the new statistics also show almost 100,000 patients are currently waiting for key diagnostic tests.

Mr Cameron, a Highlands and Islands MSP, said: “While the coronavirus pandemic goes a long way in explaining why there was such a sharp fall over this period, this staggering drop in numbers suggests that there are a lot of patients still going without treatment.

“This isn’t just storing up problems – there will be people across Scotland waiting, in pain, right now.

“It was understandable to divert people away from the NHS at the height of the Covid crisis, but that is no longer the case.

“It’s pretty clear that our NHS just isn’t treating enough patients at the moment and we need the SNP government to implement an urgent treatment recovery plan to get our NHS back up to full capacity.”