Cuts pile pressure on NHS
NO ONE wants to face a trip to hospital at Christmas.
Our NHS staff work incredibly hard all year round to deliver the best possible care that Scots deserve.
But in 2016 we saw the truth about our NHS under the SNP.
Only a third of NHS staff think there are enough of them to do their jobs properly. A quarter of GP surgeries are understaffed and nine out of 10 nurses say their workloads are getting worse.
Doctors, nurses and NHS staff are the foundations of our health service. If they are speaking out about the pressure our NHS is under, we should listen.
Instead, health boards will have to find hundreds of millions of pounds in cuts this year.
That will just increase the pressure on staff and mean patients will miss out.
The key way to take the pressure off our NHS is by cutting out delayed discharge – that’s when a patient is clinically fit to leave hospital but can’t, often because there isn’t a care package in place.
Sorting that out will free up resources and staff in our hospitals.
Instead, the SNP plan to slash £327million from the budgets of councils who deliver social care.
That just won’t work long term.
These cuts will pile on the pressure to our NHS.
Labour will table amendments to the Scottish budget to use the new tax powers of our Scottish parliament to stop the cuts and invest in social care instead.
For the long term health of our NHS, I hope the SNP support us.