Scots deserve an NHS that is there when they need it, insists Labour leader Sarwar

By Bill Heaney

On the Scottish National Party’s watch, one in six Scots is on an NHS waiting list, cancer treatment standards have been missed, almost 5,000 children are waiting for mental health treatment, people face dental waits of three years, and more than 1,100 nursing jobs have been cut since the start of the year when we already have staff shortages, Labour leader Anas Sarwar told the Holyrood Parliament this week.

He said: “Our NHS staff have been left at breaking point. Does the First Minister know how many working hours were lost to NHS staff absence last year?”

“The latest figures show that there has been a 9.9 per cent increase in in-patient and day-case activity year on year and a 2.7 per cent increase in out-patient activity. In relation to planned care, there has been an increase in capacity as a consequence of the introduction of the national treatment centres, as a result of which 20,000 additional surgeries and a range of different interventions are being undertaken. On cancer treatment, which Mr Sarwar mentioned, we are treating more patients with cancer on time within the 62-day standard—3 per cent more compared with the same quarter a year ago, and 12.8 per cent more compared with the position 10 years ago.

Anas Sarwar, Scottish Labour leader, and First Minister John Swinney clashed over NHS performance.

“That is a story of the national health service—and our committed staff the length and breadth of the country—doing everything that they can to ensure that we meet the needs of individuals in very difficult and challenging circumstances. That will remain the focus of the Government.”

But Anas Sarwar was insistent: “The fact of the matter is that NHS waiting lists are getting longer, not shorter, on this Government’s watch. The answer that the First Minister was looking for is that more than 15.3 million working hours were lost in a single year in the middle of an NHS crisis. That is the equivalent of 640,000 days lost in our NHS when one in six Scots is on an NHS waiting list.”

The First Minister told him: “There are legitimate challenges that are being wrestled with in relation to the impact as a consequence of the increased demand on services that arose from the Covid pandemic. The Government has expanded national health service staff resources over a number of years. Nursing and midwifery staffing is up 17.5 per cent since the Government came to power. We have seen a 68 per cent increase in the number of medical and dental consultants who have been recruited since this Government came to power.

“Therefore, the Government has been investing. We have taken decisions to allocate more investment than would have been the case had we just passed on Barnett consequentials, because we have been prepared to take the decisions that Mr Sarwar no longer supports with regard to taxation in order that we have more resources available in the national health service. One of the Government’s key interventions has been to ensure that we focus at all times on maximising the number of staff that we have available, despite the challenges of increasing demand on the service.”

Anas Sarwar refused to back off: “Some 15.3 million working hours were lost in our NHS in one year, and that is the First Minister’s answer. That is simply not good enough, because Scots deserve an NHS that is there when they need it. However, under this SNP Government, even our NHS staff cannot get the treatment that they need in time to get back to work and treat others. That has created a doom loop of delays in which everyone loses out.

“The simple truth is that our NHS is not safe with the SNP, and no amount of warm words will cut it. The record shows that it cannot be trusted, because this Government has lost its way. It is incompetent, and it now admits that it has spent too long focusing on campaigning rather than governing. Why are NHS patients and staff being forced to pay the price of this SNP Government’s neglect?”

“The second reality is the financial context in which we are operating. This Government has taken some pretty difficult decisions to increase the money that is available to the national health service so that, for example, we can afford pay deals in order that we avoid industrial action. That has been such an important element of sustaining the national health service in Scotland, and I welcome the positive dialogue that has taken place.

“However, the problem here is the perpetuation of austerity. Mr Sarwar told me during the election campaign that there would be ‘No austerity under Labour’, Those were his words: ‘No austerity under Labour’, and we are getting austerity under the Labour Party as we speak. So my message to Mr Sarwar is that, if he wants to help the situation, he should say to his UK masters to end the austerity because, as he well knows, all roads lead back to Westminster on NHS funding.”