Oral and maxillofacial waiting times fall in Ayrshire & Arran
dailyrecord.co.ukPatients needing oral and maxillofacial surgery in Ayrshire have seen wait times reduce - but some are still enduring lists of more than two YEARS.Figures obtained following a freedom of information (FOI) request from the Scottish Labour Party revealed an average waiting time of 43 weeks for oral and maxillofacial surgery in Ayrshire with some patients waiting up to 121 weeks in 2023-24.Labour have said the figures are “completely shocking” while NHS Ayrshire & Arran have recruited new staff “to reduce the waiting times for those requiring these specialist treatments and procedures”.Oral and maxillofacial surgery is a specialist discipline which involves surgeries to the face, mouth, jaw and neck.Although still above pre-pandemic levels, the average wait has fallen from a peak of 81 weeks in 2022-23 and the longest waits have fallen from a peak of 157 weeks in 2022-23.South Scotland Labour MSP, Colin Smyth, claimed the “huge waits” were for “dental surgery” but NHS Ayrshire & Arran clarified that the FOI data only referred to oral and maxillofacial surgery and not procedures carried out in a community dental practice.The data released by Labour did include information on other health boards but the figures were generally incomparable due to the differing data provided by each health board.NHS Fife, NHS Grampian and NHS Highland all provided the equivalent data to NHS Ayrshire & Arran and all had shorter average waiting times but only NHS Fife had a longer waiting time which was less than NHS Ayrshire & Arran.Cameron Sharkey, divisional general manager for surgical services, said: “Oral and maxillofacial surgery is a speciality surgical discipline which relates to complex issues with the mouth, face, jaws and neck.“Patien
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