BREXMAS ELECTION

SNP leader slated over state of the NHS in Scotland in TV showdown

‘Indeed, it’s not good enough’

NICOLA Sturgeon’s shocking record with Scotland’s NHS has ‘come back to bite her’ amid growing concerns over the state of the health service.

The First Minister was yesterday accused of shrugging off a legal guarantee to treat all patients within 12 weeks after she stumbled over figures in an uncomfortable interview.

Miss Sturgeon was probed over her ‘abysmal’ record which has seen a number of waiting times targets missed, a contamination scandal in Scotland’s flagship super-hospital and soaring drugs deaths.

In a bruising interview with the BBC’s Andrew Neil ahead of next month’s General Election, the SNP leader also claimed an independent Scotland would be able to re-join the EU relatively quickly.

She was accused of ‘misleading voters’ as she also stumbled over her party’s Sustainable Growth Commission – and the SNP’s plans for slashing the country’s deficit should she succeed in breaking up Britain.

Grilling her over Scotland’s NHS, he asked whether she or any health secretary had been ‘charged with breaking the law’ after failing to keep legal waiting time guarantees.

In response, Miss Sturgeon admitted the

NHS is ‘not meeting that target,’ adding: ‘It’s below... it’s 80 per cent or so.’

But Mr Neil corrected the SNP leader, revealing that it is closer to 72 per cent. She said: ‘Indeed, it’s not good enough.’

Official figures previously showed that only 72.7 per cent of patients were being treated within the 12-week legal limit.

However, Miss Sturgeon said it is ‘not a criminal law’ and therefore no charges could be brought upon her or the Health Secretary. She added: ‘We’ve got an £850million waiting time improvement plan under way. More patients are being seen within these targets now than in the year before.’

Asked if her government is ‘way behind’ on its targets, she said: ‘I’m not denying that. All health services have these challenges. We are addressing these challenges... A&E, for example, we are way ahead of the performance of health services in other parts of the UK.’

Mr Neil went on to list a series of failures within Scotland’s NHS, such as only two out of eight waiting times targets being met. The target for A&E has not been met since July 2017, while the ‘two-month cancer target’ has not been reached since 2013.

He detailed growing concerns over a water contamination scandal at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital amid fears over the deaths of two children.

Miss Sturgeon was also forced to listen to accusations over the failure to open the Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Young People in Edinburgh, originally due to open in 2012 – but is still not fit to open.

Mr Neil flagged up figures showing 1,187 people died from drugrelated deaths in 2018, meaning Scotland has the ‘worst drug addiction problem in Europe’, after drug treatment budgets were slashed by the Government. He said: ‘Maybe the NHS needs legislation to protect it from Nicola Sturgeon?’

Responding, she said the Government was addressing issues with the children’s hospital in Edinburgh and that patient satisfaction ratings for NHS Scotland ‘remain extremely high’.

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Mile Briggs said: ‘Nicola Sturgeon went into this election campaign aiming to weaponise the NHS. In fact her abysmal record has now come back to bite her – and rightly so.’

Graham Grant – Page 16