A young woman with a severe skin condition spent almost four years on a waiting list to see an NHS dermatologist in person.

Charlotte Brown, 31, from Edinburgh, was first diagnosed with psoriasis in 2017 and referred for light therapy in 2019.

It wasn’t until September this year that she began treatment.

Psoriasis is a chronic condition that causes inflammation on the body that forms flaky patches of skin and scales.

Data released by Public Health Scotland revealed that more that 8,000 people had joined the waiting list for a dermatology outpatient appointment in the three months to June – and that list had grown by more than any other NHS specialty.

It comes as statistics showed that NHS waiting lists in Scotland have grown to a record high, with more than 670,000 names in the queue to see a specialist for non-urgent care in the latest quarter – including more than 500,000 waits for an outpatient appointment.