ONE of Irvine’s MSPs has hailed Ayrshire NHS staff - despite failures in patient treatment times.

Cunninghame South MSP Margaret Burgess has praised NHS Ayrshire & Arran for their “strong performance” against the Treatment Time Guarantee with 99.5 per cent of inpatient or day cases treated within the 12 week limit.

However, it was revealed this week that the health board missed it’s target to treat 90 per cent of patients within 18 weeks.

Nine of Scotland’s 14 health board met the 90 per cent target but five, including NHS Ayrshire & Arran, did not.

The Ayrshire health board only managed to treat 82.5 per cent of patients. The Treatment Time Guarantee was introduced in October 2012, providing a legal standard for inpatients and day-case patients to be treated within 12 weeks.

Last week the Scottish Government allocated £10m to health boards needing extra support to deliver waiting time targets, the first sum committed from the new £31.5m Performance Fund for frontline services.

But Mrs Burgess has hailed the staff for their achievements.

The SNP politician said: “Ayrshire’s NHS staff deserve enormous credit for their strong performance against the Treatment Time Guarantee.

“Newly published figures show that in Ayrshire & Arran, no less than 99.5 per cent of inpatient or day cases who were treated in December 2014 were treated within the twelve week limit.

“Scotland now has some of the lowest waiting times on record and there is no doubt it is thanks to the hard work of NHS staff and their commitment to treating patients as quickly as possible.

“Of course if it was up to Labour, they would abolish the Treatment Time Guarantee altogether, turning back the progress that has been made by Ayrshire & Arran.

“It is clear that the SNP is the only party that can be trusted with our NHS.

"Staff and patients can be confident that the SNP will maintain the Treatment Time Guarantee which is delivering results for patients in Ayrshire and across the country – and will always put the interests of patients and staff before cheap attempts to grab headlines.”