The Scottish Government has suffered another parliamentary defeat, after MSPs last night voted against its plans to introduce legally binding NHS waiting time guarantees.

Despite ministers arguing that legal guarantees would be the only way of ensuring promises made to patients were kept, MSPs voted down the proposals by 77 votes to 48.

Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Ross Finnie said the guarantees would introduce “American-style litigation into Scotland’s health service”, adding that this “could only result in health service staff spending time in the court room, rather than in the treatment room".  

Labour’s health spokesperson Margaret Curran added that the legally binding guarantees shows that the government did not have the confidence to deliver.

However, SNP chief whip Brian Adam said: "It is absolutely astonishing that Labour has voted against patients' rights. For a party supposedly in favour of consumer-focused health service this seems an incredible way to go about things.

"However, the Scottish Government remains 100 per cent behind its policy, establishing a new 18-week whole journey waiting time guarantee by 2011 and consulting on a Patients' Rights Bill that will ensure a more patient-focused NHS.

"The Scottish Government's policy is patient-centred and has been welcomed by patients themselves and organisations such as the Scottish Patients' Association who have been campaigning for this for many years."