SERVICE IS ON LIFE SUPPORT ...BUT THIS IS THE REMEDY

NOT a week goes by without some new and damning statistic on the performance of Scotland’s NHS under the SNP. Yesterday, there was a slew of them. the most shocking was the revelation that almost 800,000 Scots are now on a waiting list of some sort.

Among that growing tally are more than 31,000 who have been waiting more than a year for outpatient treatment.

Despite the tireless efforts of dedicated NHS professionals, the service is at breaking point. Staff are run ragged and patients are put at risk by the SNP Government’s disastrous mismanagement.

It is an appalling indictment of the failures of a series of SNP health secretaries – the last of whom, Humza Yousaf, has failed his way to the top job despite presiding over the worst statistics on record.

His flimsy recovery plan was so ineffective that his successor, Michael Matheson, had to have ‘NHS Recovery’ added to his job title. But there is little chance of that recovery happening while the SNP remains in government, devoting its energies to its separatist agenda, rather than the chief priority of most Scots.

Years of shoddy workforce planning by SNP health secretaries have created a personnel crisis. there is an acute shortage of consultants, midwives, nurses, GPs and NHS dentists. the SNP’s failure to attract skilled workers from elsewhere – not helped by it making Scotland the highest-taxed part of the UK – has compounded the difficulties created by its failure to train enough homegrown health professionals.

THE standard SNP response to this disgraceful situation is to bring up Covid, claim that things are even worse elsewhere and, of course, to blame Westminster. What we do not hear from SNP ministers is a viable plan for action and recovery.

the Scottish Conservatives are the only party that has produced just that. We have policies that would deliver a modern, efficient and local NHS for Scotland. We would increase the proportion of NHS spending going directly into primary care to 11 per cent. GPs are the first port of call for patients, so it’s vital we tackle the first bottleneck in the chain. We would also ease the burden on them with a fully electronic repeat prescription service.

We would introduce crisis maximum waiting times for A&E. We would run ‘Super Saturdays’ to maximise the use of facilities and reduce backlogs and roll out local outreach teams to help elderly patients.

these are simple, practical solutions that would make a difference to patients’ lives immediately. they would modernise the NHS – make it more efficient, effective and responsive to patients’ needs. It cannot continue under the SNP’s mismanagement. We urgently need a new prescription.