Waiting lists for hospital appointments in Dumfries and Galloway have hit a record high.
New figures show there were more than 18,000 waits on the inpatient and outpatient appointment lists at the end of September.
And seven people have potentially been waiting for an appointment for more than three years.
The figures from Public Health Scotland reveal there were 568,561 ongoing outpatient waits across Scotland – down from 575,750 the previous month – affecting an estimated 510,133 people.
But Dumfries and Galloway saw its waiting lists rise in September with 12,568 ongoing outpatient waits compared to 12,282 at the end of the previous month.
The Scottish Government has set a target that 95 per cent of patients should be seen within 12 weeks, but in Dumfries and Galloway there had been 6,474 waits lasting longer than that – a rate of 51.1 per cent. Across Scotland, 61 per cent of people waited longer than 12 weeks.
A total of 186 waits in Dumfries and Galloway had lasted for more than a year – and of them, seven had lasted for more than three years.
There were also 156,192 ongoing Scottish waits for inpatient or day case treatment, just 18 up on the previous month.
Dumfries and Galloway’s share was 5,646 waits, up from 5,614 at the end of August.
A total of 3,858 waits had lasted for more than 12 weeks, meaning just 31.7 per cent of people had been seen within the target. The Scottish rate was 32.2 per cent.