Further details of a £270m funding package to reduce waiting times across Scotland were revealed yesterday. Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon, told the Scottish Parliament of the plans included in a Patients' Rights Bill, which are being consulted on.

Further details of a £270m funding package to reduce waiting times across Scotland were revealed yesterday.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon, told the Scottish Parliament of the plans included in a Patients' Rights Bill, which are being consulted on.

The bill includes a legally binding guarantee of 12 weeks for treatment, from the date it has been agreed with a clinician, with the overall wait reduced to 18 weeks from the date of referral.

Greater Glasgow and Clyde will receive £22m a year to meet the new targets as its share of £90m to be allocated each year, for three years. Lothian will receive £12m and Lanarkshire £9.7m.

Ms Sturgeon said: "The Patients' Rights Bill will place patients at the very centre of the NHS in Scotland, creating a culture where NHS patients and staff become real partners. Across Scotland, patients and their families tell me that access to swift and safe treatment remains a key issue for them."

However, opposition MSPs had some concerns.

Ross Finnie, LibDem health spokesman, said: "Patients' rights are already enshrined in the Patients' Charter. The £270m investment to cut waiting times is welcome. I do, however, wonder how much more could be invested in improving frontline services if the SNP dropped this unnecessary plan to make patients' rights legally enforceable. I'm confident that most patients would rather have more medical staff and cleaner hospitals rather than the right to a lawyer at their bedsides."

The bill also includes the right to treatment in another health board area, elsewhere in the UK or in some extreme cases hospitals abroad.

Labour's Cathy Jamieson said: "People with family commitments, those from vulnerable groups, elderly people, may not actually feel able to exercise their right in relation for that.

"For some vulnerable people the prospect of a hospital admission is frightening enough, without the thought of being away from family and friends or travelling into the unknown."