Meeting of the Parliament 02 May 2018
I will start by saying that I am immensely proud of our NHS. Our staff do an excellent job day in and day out. They often go the extra mile, as witnessed during the severe winter weather, when heroic efforts were made to get to work to keep patients safe. Further, with our world-leading patient safety programme, we have one of the safest systems in the world, with international interest in how that has been achieved. The vast majority of patients get a fantastic and timely service, and the fact that patient satisfaction levels are higher than ever—with 90 per cent of Scottish in-patients saying that their hospital care and treatment was good or excellent—suggests that that is the case.
I have no problem being held accountable for our NHS. That is my job. Is it a perfect system? No, it is not. Sometimes, in a system that is the size and scale of the NHS, things go wrong, and I am sure that we will hear examples of that today. However, in each of those cases, what is important is that there is an openness to reflect and learn from them, which the new duty of candour encourages.
On the point about patient safety, members may be aware that news is emerging of a breast screening error that affects 450,000 women in England. Jeremy Hunt has just made a statement to the House of Commons on the matter. Given the significant public interest in it, I reassure members and the public that the issue does not affect the NHS in Scotland. Patients should be reassured that there are no problems with our breast screening programme records or information technology systems. As usual, all women should continue to be aware of changes to their breasts and, if they have any concerns, should see their general practitioners. Scottish Government officials will work with Public Health England to identify any women affected in England who have subsequently moved to Scotland.
Like every health system in these islands and beyond, our NHS sometimes struggles to cope with rising demand. Despite record high NHS staffing—it is up by more than 13,000—our performance on key targets is not what I would want it to be. Although Scotland’s core accident and emergency services have been the best performing in the UK for more than three years and are 10 per cent better than they were three years ago, some sites still struggle and need to improve. Although there is now a downward trend in delayed discharge, with a reduction of 7 per cent in total bed days lost compared to the previous year, there is still much work to be done, especially in areas such as Lothian. That is why we are driving forward investment in, and reform of, our NHS to meet the rising demand and challenges now and into the future.