Meeting of the Parliament 02 November 2016
Our NHS workforce does an amazing job. What is clear is that none of the criticism of the performance of NHS Scotland is aimed at the work that staff do to deliver health services to communities across our country.
The Audit Scotland report set out clearly the major key challenges facing the health service in Scotland perhaps, as Anas Sarwar suggested, specifically on recruitment and retention of staff within the service.
It is increasingly clear that this Government has failed to deliver a sustainable workforce in Scotland. The impact of that is affecting the delivery of key services and the meeting of the Government’s health targets. How have we reached this position? It is worth reflecting that student nurse numbers were cut by the Government by around a quarter between 2007 and 2013—particularly between 2011 and 2013 when the current First Minister was health secretary. That has clearly impacted on our health services and, as the Royal College of Nursing briefing for today’s debate states:
“our health services are now reaping the consequences of decisions taken by Government at that time.”
The financial position of our health service is also of great concern, as outlined in the Audit Scotland report. As a Lothian MSP, I am acutely aware of the financial challenges facing my local health board and how that is impacting on the delivery of health services to the people I represent in Parliament.
Behind those statistics, as Donald Cameron has mentioned, let us not forget that we are talking about people—our family, friends and neighbours. As has already been said in the debate, health boards have failed to meet seven out of eight key national targets, reporting lengthy waits for emergency treatment, in-patient and out-patient appointments, cancer treatment and mental healthcare for children.
Given the concerns being expressed by alcohol and drug partnerships across the country about their funding arrangements, I too question whether we will see them maintain the service they provide and meet the treatment targets that they have set for the future.
The Scottish Government has a waiting target for orthopaedic appointments of 12 weeks from the date of receiving a general practitioner referral. However, NHS Lothian admitted to me in a letter only last week that such is the increasing number of patients referred to orthopaedics in the Lothian region that they are finding it impossible to meet the target. I have a number of elderly constituents who are in desperate need of hip replacements and who are in severe pain every day but who face waits that they have been told could be up to seven months just for an initial consultation with an orthopaedic consultant. That is clearly unacceptable and it is happening on the SNP Government’s watch.
In fact, the Audit Scotland report outlines that the number of people waiting is increasing, with over 275,500 out-patients waiting just for an appointment.
All organisations and political parties agree that we need a shift in the balance of how care is provided away from the acute setting. We agree. However, the question that is being asked again and again is whether the Government is providing the leadership that is needed to actually achieve that.