Growing ills of NHS add to pressure on Robison

● Health secretary hiding behind ‘a blizzard of spin’

New figures showing a rise in cancelled operations and bed blocking in Scotland’s hospitals have put the Health Secretary under mounting pressure.

Shona Robison’s performance is under the microscope after the statistics were released ahead of a Holyrood debate today. Opposition leaders have called on the beleaguered health leader to quit.

Figures show the number of operations cancelled rose to 1,201 in a single month. Data also showed 3,160 operations were cancelled in the first three months of this year.

Shona Robison was last night under mounting pressure after new NHS data identified a rise in cancelled operations, missed A & E targets and an increase in bed-blocking.

The damaging statistics were released ahead of a Holyrood debate today that will see the beleaguered health secretary’s performance put further under the microscope.

The Scottish Conservatives will use their debating time to put Ms Robison “on notice” as they demand urgent action to sort out NHS finances.

With Labour and the Liberal Democrats calling on Ms Robison to quit, the Scottish Tories will call on the health secretary to get a grip on the health service.

On the eve of the debate, a host of statistics raised more questions about her stewardship of the NHS.

The number of operations cancelled during March due to capacity or non-clinical reasons – such as lack of beds or staff – rose to 1,201, or 4.1 per cent of planned operations, up from 2.7 per cent in February. The first three months of 2018 saw 3,160 operations cancelled for capacity or nonclinical reasons.

Separate figures separate figures showed A&E departments failed to meet a key waiting time target in March.

During the month, 137,820 people attended A&E with 87.9 per cent either admitted, transferred or discharged in four hours, falling below the 95 per cent target.

Analysis of the data by Labour found that so far this year, 52,025 people waited longer than the four-hour waiting time target.

Despite being only around one-third of the way through 2018, the figure was almost half of the 107,000 for the whole of 2017.

So far this year, 7,266 people have waited more than eight hours and 1,799 have waited more than 12 hours.

Other statistics showed a 2 per cent increase in bed blocking in hospitals over the year. According to the March data, 1,370 people were delayed leaving hospital despite being well enough to be discharged. This was up 3 per cent compared with the 1,339 people delayed at the equivalent point last year.

During the month, 42,628 days were spent in hospital by people whose discharge was delayed, an increase of 3 per cent on March 2017 and 11 per cent on February.

According to the Scottish Government, several health boards blamed the weather for cancelled operations. Despite this, a total of 25,399 operations were carried out during March – a rise of 7.3 per cent on the previous month.

Ms Robison said: “Severe weather and warnings not to travel did mean many staff could not get to hospital.”

Labour, however, claimed that Ms Robison’s remarks were a “blizzard of spin”.

The party’s health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: “Shona Robison is hiding behind a week of extreme weather to explain the performance.”

Mr Sarwar repeated his call for Ms Robison to resign, saying the health secretary was “out of her depth and out of time”.

Today’s Conservative debate will see the party’s health spokesman, Miles Briggs, demand immediate publication of the current financial position for all NHS bodies.

Mr Briggs said yesterday: “We are putting the cabinet secretary and this SNP government on notice – and calling for real action.”

“Shona Robison is hiding behind a week of extreme weather to explain the performance”

ANAS SARWAR