More than 70,000 patients have been waiting for over a year for NHS treatment at Scottish hospitals or an outpatient appointment, damning figures revealed today.

The number of people on NHS Scotland waiting lists, either for treatment, a hospital appointment or diagnostic testing, has now reached almost 750,000.

Official figures from Public Health Scotland (PHS) show that at the end of June, there were 139,584 people waiting to be admitted to hospital for treatment.

A total of 451,020 were on the list for an outpatient appointment.

Separate figures published by PHS last week show that there were 157,289 patients waiting for key diagnostic tests, taking the combined total to 747,893.

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