Overstretched NHS is past breaking point
SCOTS doctors fear patients are being “let down”, claiming the NHS is like a “rubber band” that has snapped because of Covid.
The Scotland chairman of the BMA, Lewis Morrison, told their Annual Representative Meeting that “years of underinvestment and a complacent attitude to working conditions and recruitment” by the Scottish Government had contributed to the malaise.
He said: “The rubber band that is our NHS was stretched so far and tightly before the pandemic that it has now snapped in many places.
”All of which might sound like a moan about things being ‘worse than they have ever been’. Except, of course, they are.”
He told how doctors in Scotland were the “messengers who bear the brunt for the myriad of things going wrong across the whole health system”.
Morrison, who steps down from the role this summer, added: “Many of us have found ourselves saying sorry to patients and families a lot recently; most of the time we are being apologists for things that are simply not our fault.
“We came into the pandemic with resources and staffing stretched so thin that it is nothing short of a miracle we have somehow endured.”
He added that recruiting and retaining staff was crucial and claimed there was a “shopping list” which could help achieve it.
Morrison said: “Don’t cut our pay in real terms – as has happened for far too many years. Actually, do something about the pensions issue. Stop wringing hands and saying it’s difficult.
“Don’t prioritise clinical numbercrunching, target-busting work over all the other things that doctors need to make their jobs and working lives fulfilling.
“Simple things, like hot food and drink and knowing what your hours will be more than a few days in advance shouldn’t be too much to ask.”
Reacting to the comments, the SNP Government insisted they are investing to help the NHS recover from Covid.