THE NHS insists they are using Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank as much as they can for operations.

Thousands of patients from Greater Glasgow and Clyde are sent to the leading centre every year to keep down waiting times.

But Jackie Baillie MSP called for the NHS to make better use of the hospital, which takes just 0.05 per cent of orthopaedic patients from the board.

Ms Baillie said she asked the NHS at their annual review meeting last week why they had almost the least access, per head of population, to the Golden Jubilee than other health boards.

And she said some constituents had been forced to wait up to 52 weeks in pain and were never offered access to the Golden Jubilee.

She said: “It is simply unacceptable that patients are being expected to wait for up to a year for treatment in Greater Glasgow and Clyde while the health board refuses to make proper use of the Golden Jubilee.

“NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are consistently missing waiting times targets, leaving patients waiting in pain for treatment.

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“The cabinet secretary agreed that health boards should make better use of the Golden Jubilee, yet NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde ignore this advice.

“I hope that the health board will begin to make better use of the treatment slots available and request more slots if need be.”

But the NHS said they are using their maximum allocation and sent 800 patients for orthopaedic procedures this year, which they hope to boost to 900 next year.

A spokesman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “In common with all NHS Scotland Boards we are given a set allocation on the number of patients we can send to the Golden Jubilee, which serves the whole of Scotland.

“We make full and proper use of the Golden Jubilee in line with this allocation.

“We use our full allocation every year and this year we were offered additional slots – which we accepted.

“As well as this, almost 3,000 of our patients had cataract operations at the Golden Jubilee and 1,200 diagnostic scopes too. We also intend to increase that number this year.”

A spokeswoman for the hospital said: “If there is a need for an additional allocation, a board can request this on an ad-hoc basis through the regular meetings we hold across the country and we will make every effort to respond positively.

“Always happy to explore all future proposals to help patients on a local, regional or national basis, the Golden Jubilee has already provided additional endoscopy, general surgery, cataract surgery and orthopaedic surgery this year to other boards including NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.”