“18 week target still being met” cheers the headline in the Scottish Government’s press release. Down in the quotations section, Health Secretary Alex Neil said: “Major progress has been made across the board when it comes to NHS waiting times in Scotland.”

“Across the board”, eh? Not from where I’m sitting. As the Government pushes down harder on inpatient and daycase waits, outpatient waits are popping up fast. The misleading and perverse 18-week referral-to-treatment waiting times target isn’t helping at all. And it’s all utterly predictable.

Here’s the latest data (from ISD Scotland), so you can see for yourself. Unless Scotland reforms its waiting times targets, I fear this deterioration is going to carry on for a while yet.

Still-waiters in Scotland