Prepare for more cuts to the NHS
Hospital departments may be shut
SCOTLAND’S failing health service is facing further swingeing cuts, with local hospital departments set to be in the firing line.
Health Secretary Shona Robison yesterday signalled that more savings are on the way as she told opposition parties to ‘get behind’ any changes to local health services rather than opposing them.
Last month, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens united to defeat the SNP by supporting a Labour motion condemning the proposed closure of local hospital departments amid fears for the future of a number of maternity, paediatric and trauma orthopaedic clinics.
However, Miss Robison insisted that some hospital departments will still have to close.
The NHS row spilled over into First Minister’s Questions yesterday when First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was accused of being ‘in denial’ about the scale of the crisis facing the NHS.
SCOTLAND’S embattled health service is facing more cuts, with hospital departments at risk of being shut down to save money.
Health Secretary Shona Robison yesterday signalled that more savings are on the way by telling opposition parties that they should ‘get behind’ any changes to the way the health service operates in local areas instead of opposing them.
Last month, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens united to defeat the SNP by supporting a Labour motion condemning the proposed closure of local hospital departments.
Labour proposed the motion amid fears that maternity services at both the Vale of Leven and Inverclyde hospitals were under threat and that paediatric services at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley and trauma orthopaedics at Monklands Hospital in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, were also at risk.
However, Miss Robison signalled that hospital departments will have to close as she signalled more cost cutting is on the way. She said: ‘We acknowledge that in order to shift the balance of care we need to spend more on primary and community health services. That will mean a shift of resources.
‘What the opposition need to do is get behind that plan instead of putting blocks in the way to any changes to acute services within parliament – that is not constructive and not helpful.’
In a further sign that radical changes are on the horizon, Nicola Sturgeon said: ‘Generally speaking, a moment of truth is coming for opposition members.
‘They are all quite happy to talk the language of shifting the balance of care from acute health services into the community. We will soon see whether they are prepared to back that rhetoric with action when it comes to supporting the implementation of our clinical strategy. I think that we all have a suspicion about how they will behave in those circumstances.’
The NHS row spilled over into First Minister’s Questions yesterday when Miss Sturgeon was accused of being ‘in denial’ about the crisis.
The SNP leader came under attack from opponents at Holyrood after the crisis facing the beleaguered health service was revealed in a damning Audit Scotland report.
The report revealed seven out of the Scottish Government’s eight waiting times are not being met.
It also said that the cost of agency staff soared to £175million in 2015-16, that rising spending on drugs, now totalling £1.6billion, is a ‘major pressure’ on the service, and that the number of people waiting for outpatient appointments rose by 89 per cent between 2009 and 2016.
The money available to run NHS Scotland services this year fell by 0.3 per cent in real terms – and it is estimated that £492million of cuts are on the horizon. Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said: ‘I think we need to spell out things today for what they are, and that is the failure of this government to get to grips with our NHS. It is an outrage.
‘Health boards are having to make huge savings in order to break even, to take out loans to keep going and put off essential repairs to hospital buildings.
‘Yet we learn today that because of this government’s failure to manage staffing, there has been a 47 per cent increase in agency nursing and midwifery staff, and, staggeringly, individual agency doctors are being paid over £400,000 each to provide cover for periods of less than a year, and all of that while patient care suffers from cuts and hospital buildings are left to crumble. I call it a scandal.’
Labour’s Kezia Dugdale said: ‘This summer the First Minister set up a listening exercise but she’s not listening to patients, she’s not listening to doctors and she’s not listening to nurses. The First Minister should stop living in denial.’
Miss Sturgeon insisted that improvements have been made since the SNP came to power.
She said: ‘Health service funding is higher than when we took office and waiting times are lower.
‘Health boards in Scotland met all of their financial targets, as narrated by Audit Scotland today. In the same year... the NHS in England had a £2.5billion deficit.’
‘Failure to get to grips with NHS’