Nicola Sturgeon told Scottish Parliament that an issue with the distribution of appointment letters partly led to the staggering amount of appointments missed. The SNP leader issued an apology to those affected by the issue and stated she has been given assurances that it has been resolved.
Ms Sturgeon said: “When we implement a programme of this scale and at this speed, it is inevitable that there will be glitches and things that do not go as well as we want.
“That is true of the scheduling, printing and posting of letters associated with the programme.
“We are aware of issues with the delivery of appointment letters in the early part of last week.
“We are still trying with NHS Scotland and Royal Mail to understand all of the detail of that but I have been given an assurance that the issue has been resolved.
“I want to apologise to anybody affected, there were around 60,000 appointments last week that were not attended.”
She added: “Undoubtedly last week that would have been partly down to the issue with letters but there will also be other issues.
“For example, we were concerned last week, those concerns have not materialised, about the publicity around the AstraZeneca vaccine and the impact that might have.”
More to follow…
