By Bill Heaney
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar yesterday accused the SNP government of “burying its head in the sand” instead of taking action to develop a plan to keep patients and staff during a chaotic winter crisis for the NHS.
He said: “The result has been deadly chaos. Over Christmas, 1,642 people waited more than 12 hours in accident and emergency departments, ambulances were put on red alert, a flu wave piled even more pressure on our hospitals, and thousands of people waited for hours even to get their calls answered by NHS 24.”
Mr Sarwar said Dr Iain Kennedy of the British Medical Association said: “The NHS as we know it will struggle to see out another year”.
He added: “That is the deadly consequence of John Swinney plunging our NHS into a permanent crisis. Is that not the clearest sign that the SNP is taking Scotland in the wrong direction?”
First Minister John Swinney, Labour leader Anas Sarwar and Dr Ian Kennedy of the BMA.
“Thankfully, the number of hospital admissions fell by 36 per cent in the week ending 5 January, but the number of hospital admissions in the week ending 29 December was the highest in any given week—as recorded by Public Health Scotland—going back to 2010.
“I have said that to explain the severity of the situation that the NHS has dealt with, and I express my thanks to the clinicians, staff, ambulance personnel, NHS 24 staff, general practitioners and everyone else in the healthcare system who has given everything that they could during the past few weeks to address the situation.
“The Government has always recognised that there was a need for winter planning. We did that and, despite the enormous challenges, the NHS has withstood the greatest level of pressure since 2010. I thank members of staff for everything that they contributed to achieve that objective.”
Mr Sarwar said that under John Swinney’s watch, Scots who have worked all their lives are forced to endure painful, dangerous and humiliating circumstances. The man’s distressed daughter summed it up best when she said:
“My dad gave his all for others in his career, but now I am genuinely scared that the next time something happens to him he won’t make it through because of the mess that the SNP have allowed the NHS to get into. The SNP couldn’t run a bath, let alone the NHS.”
“First, the level of demand and the pressure on the NHS must be acknowledged, given the scale of the pressure that we face as a consequence of the flu outbreak that we are dealing with.
“Secondly, members of staff have gone out of their way to do everything that they can—by extending shifts and contributing more than could reasonably be asked of them—to do their level best for patients. I accept that, in some circumstances, that will not be enough and will not have been good enough for individuals, but we have to acknowledge those two issues, which I put to Parliament.
“Demand has been colossal for the NHS and, in addition, staff have given their all to support individual patients.”
“John Swinney has no plan, and his incompetence is risking the very existence of our NHS. Is it not the case that a change of direction for our NHS cannot come from John Swinney and the SNP? It can come only with a change of Government in 2026.”
“What this Government will do is concentrate on its plans to invest in and reform the national health service by ensuring that the measures in the budget are supported to improve the quality of care for people in Scotland: so that we have an expansion of frailty units to strengthen our accident and emergency capacity; so that we can expand hospital at home, which has been a huge asset to us in dealing with the winter pressures; so that we can support general practice with an extra £13.6 million; and so that we can strengthen investment in preventative measures to ensure that people are able to follow the advice—which many people did—to get the right care in the right place in advance of the winter pressures that we have faced.”
He added: “All of that is contained in the Scottish Government’s budget, and I am delighted that it looks as if the Labour Party has at last come to its senses and realised that this is a budget that has strong measures to support people in Scotland.
“However, Mr Sarwar needs to get off the fence. It is time for Mr Sarwar to vote in favour of lifting the two-child limit. It is time for Mr Sarwar to vote to reintroduce winter heating payments for pensioners. It is time for Mr Sarwar to get off the fence and back the Government’s budget.”
When you read this you realize what an utter shyster and low life Anas Sarwar is.
And I do not use this description lightly.
His party has just cut the heating allowance for around a million pensioners and with winter temperatures now down to overnight lows of as cold as the – 5c as I write at this very me moment, and daytime temperatures of freezing, the incidence of health related issues soars and hospitals struggle with the tide of winter related ill health.
And this low life plays politics and says it’s the Scottish government’s fault.
Liar, cheat, dissembler, the multi millionaire club that is Sarwar and his elite Labour chums is palpable.
But here’s another. At a stroke the Labour chancellor increased employers national insurance contribution by over one percent.
Levied on the wages of every nurse, doctor, medical technician, hospital porter or cleaner or cook, or GP surgery, how much is that that Labour have cut from the healthcare system.
Add that to the cost of trying to treat the tidal wave of cold related ill health and you realize how assisted dying is a reality for so many in Scotland
Labour in cutting heating are getting away with murder. It’s that simple and people like Sarwar know it fine well.