WHEN DOCTORS ASK PATIENTS FOR HELP, YOU KNOW THE NHS IS IN TROUBLE
‘SNP ignored warnings’
ABOUT 48 hours after I was elected to the Scottish parliament, in May 2016, a strange thing happened: people, initially in small numbers but then in a steadier stream, arrived at my local office with prescriptions.
Stapled to those prescriptions were letters from the staff at the Parkgrove and East Craigs Medical Practice, Edinburgh, saying: ‘Help us. Contact your MSP. We cannot go on like this.’
I had never heard of the like – GPs seeking the help of patients to contact their MSP about the abject distress in which their surgery found itself.
There is a fundamental and existential crisis in our health service. But the SNP Government repeatedly says, ‘Crisis? What crisis?’
Official statistics show just how stark the situation is. Our A&E departments didn’t meet the waiting time target between last October and June and unless staffing issues are addressed the situation will only worsen again this coming winter.
Cancer waiting time targets, so vital to survival rates, haven’t been hit in more than 54 months. Mental health services are in dire need of more staff, with hundreds of children having to wait over a year for the treatment they need. Far too many people are languishing in hospital for hundreds of days after they are declared ready to leave because resources aren’t there in the community.
The Audit Scotland report today highlights the dangers in the NHS as it continues to run on a skeleton crew with no real forward planning.
Auditor General Caroline Gardner says there are urgent workforce challenges.
She reports that the Scottish Government has not yet adequately estimated what impact increasing and changing demand for NHS services could have on the workforce or skills required to meet this need.
Imagine going to a hospital and being told there aren’t enough doctors or nurses. Imagine being told you can’t see your GP as they haven’t been able to replace the one that retired. Imagine children being forced to wait even longer for mental health treatment. Unless the SNP starts listening, that future will soon become a reality.
The cost of SNP mismanagement is becoming clearer by the day. It takes about ten years to train a consultant but their planning hasn’t looked anywhere near this far ahead.
The Scottish Government ignored warning after warning that staffing isn’t keeping up with demand. Now this report shows an ageing workforce and a service that is having to pay millions for agency staff. It failed to look to the long term and cuts to training places have come back to bite.
Considering the perfect storm of the ageing demographic and our surging populations in certain parts of the country, we need to meet the investment that NHS workers put into our communities with proper investment in them.
This damning audit rightly takes a dim view of Nicola Sturgeon and her health secretary’s attempts to avert this crisis.
The Scottish Government can’t rely on the goodwill and hard work of staff on the frontline to get by any longer.
It is time to scrap the pay cap, give staff the resources and support they need, and thoroughly assess what the NHS needs to be fit for purpose in the long term.
Staff are calling out for support the question is whether the SNP Government will change tack and listen.