Get a grip ... and give our failing NHS a shot in the arm
WHAT on earth is going on in Scotland’s health service? Last week NHS Lothian issued an all-points bulletin telling people ‘do NOT come to the emergency department unless it is life-threatening’.
Health bosses said waits at Edinburgh’s Royal Infirmary and Royal Hospital for Sick Children, as well as St John’s in Livingston, were the longest on record.
It wasn’t just the number of patients which was the problem, but the amount of staff sickness. NHS Lothian boss Calum Campbell confirmed he’d had to request aid from other health boards as the hospital system was under ‘extreme duress’.
The next day, NHS Ayrshire and Arran put out the same warning, saying A&E was ‘only for serious illnesses and accidents such as suspected stroke, heart attack, head injuries, fractures or wounds that need stitches’.
That such warnings are being broadcast by individual health boards should not come as a surprise when the national picture is so poor. It seems every time a ‘new low’ for emergency waiting times is recorded, we just need to wait for the next set of figures for that record to be broken.
At the start of the week, it happened again, with one health board only seeing half of emergency patients in the four-hour window the Government target measures. The target itself is for 95 per cent of patients to be seen in that timeframe.
NHS Lanarkshire moved to a Code Black risk level last week and, along with NHS Borders, has already drafted in the Army to help. NHS Grampian and NHS Ayrshire and Arran have put in requests for the same, which the Ministry of Defence is working to fulfil. Both NHS Lothian and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
– Scotland’s largest health authority – say they are considering asking for military assistance.
Of course, soldiers have been helping the health service for months. First with the initial vaccine programme and, more recently, stepping in to help the Scottish Ambulance Service as it struggled with critical delays. And this newspaper broke the story last week that all 11 health boards are looking for military support in helping to roll out the Covid booster and seasonal flu vaccination programmes.
We are amazingly fortunate that our boys and girls in camo green are always happy to help with any domestic emergencies and civil contingencies. But buttressing falling-down services with military personnel when things turn critical is not a longterm solution. It’s plugging gaps.
Also, this is just the end of October. If every health board – as well as the national ambulance service – is already looking for the military to help with support, logistics or a vaccine programme, then how bad are things going to look when we get to February?
Similarly, if our hospitals and A&E departments are so swamped in late autumn they are telling people not to come unless they have a heart attack or head injury, what is the prognosis as we head through winter?
DOCTORS, nurses, paramedics and other medical staff have spent the best part of two years battling a pandemic while watching other services suffer. They have worked wonders and nobody doubts their commitment or professionalism. But they need help.
In August, the SNP published a ‘recovery plan’ for the NHS, claiming it set out a strategic road map back to health for the service. Much of the document was made up of previous targets or promises, not a reaction to Covid at all. Opposition parties’ charges that it was a ‘thin and flimsy pamphlet’ were supported by criticism from the British Medical Association, which branded the measures as ‘unrealistic’. It added: ‘It’s August, not
winter, and the NHS is close to failing in places.’
Well, we’re not in August any more, we’re on the cusp of winter. Someone in government needs to get a grip because Scotland’s NHS is already beginning to fail.