ANGER AT A&E SNUB TO PATIENTS
First Minister urged to ‘get a grip’ as waiting lists get longer
NICOLA Sturgeon has been urged to ‘get a grip’ on the NHS crisis after she claimed people are not being ‘turned away’ from accident and emergency units.
The SNP leader faced criticism over controversial guidance telling under-pressure A&E wards to instruct some patients to look after themselves or contact a GP.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar told the First Minister to ‘get a grip’ and mocked an SNP Cop26 advert which this week said Scotland was a ‘nation in waiting’ by telling her it is ‘waiting for an ambulance, waiting at A&E and waiting for her to take responsibility’.
A&E waiting times soared to the worst on record earlier this week, and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said 231 patients had died as a direct result of long waits in emergency wards.
Referring to the guidance, which was published on Wednesday, Mr Sarwar said: ‘The First Minister’s response is not to fix the problem but to tell people they are the problem and not to go to A&E.
‘This Government has been repeatedly warned, been in denial and lives are being lost. When will the First Minister take personal responsibility and act?’
The Scottish Government guidance is based on a ‘redirection’ policy already in place in NHS Tayside. It provides a script for senior nurses and doctors to go through with patients to see if they really require emergency treatment or could be seen elsewhere.
Miss Sturgeon defended the guidance, saying: ‘We are not turning anyone away from A&E. This is about ensuring people get the right care in the right place.’
She pointed out that the Royal College of Nursing supports ‘signposting’ some patients to other services and said a similar change in guidance was made in England ‘some time ago’.
Mr Sarwar said the situation is getting worse by the week and nursing staff have warned the shortfall in registered nurses has never been higher, at almost 3,500.
He added: ‘Nicola Sturgeon’s rhetoric cannot hide the reality: the SNP has been in government for 14 years, Nicola Sturgeon was health secretary for four years, she has been First Minister for seven years.
‘There must come a point when it can’t be somebody else’s fault.
Nicola Sturgeon cut nurse training places as health secretary, we now have 3,500 nurse shortages in our NHS. Nicola Sturgeon cut hospital beds by almost 1,500 in the last decade, we are now chronically short of NHS beds. Nicola Sturgeon has been warned for months about the challenges facing A&E, and we now have people dying because of record A&E waiting times.
‘Earlier this week, the First Minister described Scotland as a “nation in waiting”. She is right: waiting on record long NHS treatment lists, waiting for an ambulance, waiting at A&E, and waiting for her to take respons ibility. When will Nicola Sturgeon get a grip of the NHS crisis?’
Miss Sturgeon was also criticised at First Minister’s Questions over mental health waiting times.
South Scotland Tory MSP Brian Whittle highlighted the case of a constituent whose adopted daughter was referred to mental health services in early 2017 but has been passed around different case workers before being told she should see a child psychologist – with an average wait of eight years.
Miss Sturgeon said the situation was not ‘remotely acceptable’, adding: ‘I absolutely understand the distress and the added anxiety that will have been caused by that length of time waiting for appropriate intervention.’
In a further sign of the pressure on the health service, NHS Highland will take over Ross-shire GP practice the Alness and Invergordon Medical Group. The surgery has been unable to fill gaps since three GPs resigned earlier this year.
It is the latest in a string of GP practices to hand over to health boards in recent years because of difficulties finding doctors.
Jill Mitchell of NHS Highland said: ‘From April 1, 2022, NHS Highland will take responsibility for running the practice and patient care. Service delivery will remain unchanged during this transitional period.’
‘Rhetoric cannot hide the reality’
Ross’s confidence shone through in this exchange. He was in command of his subject, one that the First Minister habitually struggles with. (Criminal justice is not a strong suit for the former solicitor.)
Ross projected credibility, not least when he raised the 2,200 cases of prisoners hacking the ‘unhackable’ phones they were given during the pandemic.
Inmates were able to outsmart the Scottish Government, and while that in itself isn’t much to write home about, on drug-infused paper or otherwise, it underscored a serious breach in custodial compliance.
In a testament to just how adrift she is on prisons and drugs, Sturgeon prated that the issues were ‘complex’ and she hoped ‘all of us will treat them in that way as we face up to and address drugs deaths in society generally and in our prisons’.
No, that’s not how it works, First Minister. It’s not the Academy Awards when things go right and Share A Problem Day when there’s failure afoot.
AS Nicola Sturgeon said later in response to a question on the NHS, she and her Government had been ‘re-elected with the trust of the people of Scotland to face up to these challenges’. Whether it’s drugs or the health service, it’s not up to ‘all of us’. It’s up to you.