No hiding place for the Health Secretary

IN an age when few in public service resign without a protracted display of undignified foot-dragging, the swift departure of NHS tayside chairman Professor John Connell is remarkable.

He has fallen on his sword after Health Secretary Shona Robison effectively took over the running of the board via her ministerial ‘special powers’, replacing both Professor Connell and chief executive Lesley McLay.

Miss Robison declared Professor Connell’s decision ‘the right one’ after NHS tayside needed £32million of so-called brokerage loans from the Government – and yet still took £2million from a charity fund to pay for an It system.

No doubt Miss Robison and the SNP’s army of spin doctors hope it’s an end to the matter. they’ll say it’s all neatly wrapped up, with a scapegoat identified and dispatched.

But there is much more to this – and Miss Robison still has searching questions to answer.

the desperate problems on tayside have been rumbling for years and Professor Connell only took over in 2015.

By contrast, Miss Robison was appointed as Health Secretary in 2014 – and is MSP for dundee City East, deep in the heart of NHS tayside’s area of responsibility. the public need to know when the Scottish Government became aware of the serious financial difficulties on tayside and what action it took.

It is a serious matter if the Government was aware of the problems – yet still allowed the situation to smoulder on unchecked.

It is equally serious if it was unaware – what use is a Health Secretary whose oversight is so poor that NHS tayside was allowed to descend into financial chaos undiscovered?

the SNP ludicrously styled itself ‘guardian of the NHS’. It threatened to abandon its self-denying ordinance in Westminster that prevents it voting on England-only matters. this was to ‘protect the health service’ in England – looks like it had a lucky escape.

Nationalists shamelessly claim that the NHS in Scotland is so much better than it is in England, Wales and Northern Ireland – although evidence to that effect is scant and, even if were true, what does it matter to a Scottish patient stranded on a waiting list or struggling even to see a GP?

But now all the spin has unravelled on the banks of the tay. there are ominous signs that NHS tayside is still not yet out of the financial woods and may need more taxpayers’ money to remain afloat.

the public deserve clarity over what has happened and what Miss Robison’s role has been. the personal friendship between Miss Robison and the First Minister cannot be allowed to muddy the waters.

and Professor Connell cannot be used as a human shield behind which a deeply unimpressive Health Secretary can be allowed to cower.