Meeting of the Parliament 26 October 2022
It has been a busy week for bad news across the UK, so, understandably, the Scottish Government was hoping that its own failings would drift under the radar. However, with winter approaching, we need to get serious, and quickly, about the significant problems with the Government’s management of our NHS. It is putting lives at risk. There is a crisis in A and E across Scotland and, quite frankly, the cabinet secretary has been missing in action for a great deal of it. He and a number of his predecessors have overseen years of poor workforce planning, cuts to hospital bed numbers in many areas and a consistent failure to recognise the approaching dangers of the underfunding and underresourcing of social care.
The situation beyond A and E is also desperately concerning. I have been helping one constituent who has been waiting for more than 80 weeks for arthroscopy surgery—80 weeks, cabinet secretary, in serious pain. I am advised that things are deteriorating by the day and that she is dependent on medication to get through the day. I have written to the cabinet secretary about that case, and he is unable to give that woman—and that family—any idea of when it might be possible for that vital operation to take place. I will say it again: that constituent has been waiting for 80 weeks.
It is whole families who suffer. While living with considerable pain, that woman struggles to support her child, often relying on her husband to do things that she would love to be involved with. The situation is worse than just the constant pain. Imagine how that family feels, when, for 80 weeks, they cannot do the things that they would wish to do with their daughter. We should all think about the physical pain and the mental distress. The chances of her situation improving seem to be dwindling with every passing day, as she waits for an appointment that seems as though it will never come. As I have said, the cabinet secretary is unable to offer anything to that woman.
These are the human stories behind the statistics—stories that do not even warrant a headline anymore, as they are so common. If the health secretary thinks that that is acceptable and, on top of that, cannot seem to do anything about A and E waiting times of more than eight hours going into winter—with some as high as 12 hours—it is reasonable to ask why he is still in his job.
This week, we have seen lots of politicians in London miraculously regain the jobs that they had lost, but the bar here seems to be so high that, no matter how often a minister fails, they will be kept in post. I dread to think what would happen to ordinary workers in this country if they made as many mistakes as this Administration has.
Waiting times are a massive concern for many of my constituents. Month after month, year after year, people are living with anxiety and concern about how they will get the treatment that they need. We must remember those personal stories.
We must also remember that hard-working hospital staff are under huge pressure every day, which causes them stress and anxiety as well. However, that seems to be one of those things that people in this Government just appear to accept as a force of nature. Nothing serious is ever done to address the problem; no actions are taken, and it just comes back around the next year. People—