£300m package to boost NHS in winter is ‘too little too late’
A FUNDING package of £300million to help the health service during an ‘extremely challenging’ winter was last night branded a ‘sticking plaster’.
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf was criticised for doing ‘too little, too late’ to shore up the NHS and social care, with services already facing immense pressure.
The plan will see additional support workers hired, money for care at home services and a pay rise for care staff.
Mr Yousaf claimed it was ‘vital’ to maximise NHS capacity as winter approaches and Covid continues to spread. But he was criticised by opponents and union bosses amid an ongoing crisis impacting ambulances, A&E departments and GP surgeries.
Some £48million will provide a pay rise for social care staff to £10.02 per hour. Additionally, 1,000 healthcare support staff will be recruited at a cost of £15million, a further £62million will be invested to enhance capacity in care at home provision, £40million will go towards temporary care home stays for patients and £28million will go to primary care services.
Meanwhile, £20million will allow for more social work assessments and better bridge the gap between health and social care, and £4.5million will go towards recruiting 200 foreign registered nurses by next March.
Mr Yousaf told MSPs the effects of the pandemic on the health service were ‘likely to get worse’ and social care was ‘dealing with the same level of pressure’. He said: ‘It is for this reason I am announcing the most significant package of measures and investment since the advent of devolution to assist our NHS and social care services with winter pressures.’
Scottish Conservative public health spokesman Sue Webber said: ‘This is too little too late from Humza Yousaf.
‘We had been calling for a winter plan for weeks and once again he has been too slow to act. Many of his announcements were merely designed to be headline grabbing, rather than improving delivery immediately. Our NHS cannot afford more delays and inaction from Humza Yousaf.
‘It is time for him to show the leadership required to ease the pressure on our heroic staff and ensure patients will be able to access services as quickly as possible.’
Scottish Labour’s health spokesman Jackie Baillie said the announcements ‘feel like a sticking plaster for a much more profound problem’ and said the pay rise for social care staff was ‘insufficient’.
She added: ‘Working at the checkout at Aldi pays more. You will not retain or recruit staff if you continue to pay them low wages... when will the Cabinet Secretary pay social care staff the £15 per hour they deserve?’
Mr Yousaf replied: ‘Miss Baillie will have to come up with where we would source the funding, which – on a recurring basis – would be many hundreds of millions.’
Miss Baillie’s call for a £15-an-hour wage was echoed by Louise Gilmour, secretary of union GMB Scotland, who said: ‘Many of our frontline services are already delivered on the back of wages of just under or over £10 an hour, and this isn’t nearly enough.’