End the blame game and fix broken NHS

THE NHS is on the edge of an abyss – and the Government which once promised to be its custodian has no credible plan for its rescue. In the latest illustration of the escalating crisis, senior doctors have estimated the number of patients dying because of A&E delays has soared to 60 a week.

That is a chilling disclosure, showing once again that failures in a service which aims to save lives are leading to entirely preventable deaths. For the patients affected and their families – and indeed for exhausted medics – it is a tragedy.

But responsibility for this fiasco lies squarely with the SNP Government and its chronic mismanagement of state-funded healthcare. Nicola Sturgeon’s response to the calamity unfolding on her watch is a plan to reduce ‘unnecessary’ attendances at A&E.

But the British Medical Association points out, rightly, that this is effectively blaming the patient. And the problems are caused mainly by bed-blocking and crippling staff shortages – not the sick and vulnerable desperate for treatment.

Blame-shifting is all that this buckpassing government has to offer after nearly 16 years of running the NHS into the ground. Yesterday we learned that hospitals have already gone into emergency measures, with operations put on hold, adding to the towering backlog which built up during the Covid pandemic.

There is no doubt that this appalling mess has had – and sadly will continue to have – lethal consequences. What will it take for the First Minister to get a grip and remove her blundering Health Secretary before yet more irreversible damage is done to our precious NHS?