Hansard

I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests, which states that I am a practising GP.

Today, I speak not only as a politician but as someone who has witnessed at first hand the consequences of years of SNP mismanagement in our health and social care sectors. There is groaning from members on the SNP back benches, but they should listen to this. The SNP has had 18 years to deliver on its promises to improve Scotland’s NHS and support Scotland’s health and social care workforce, and yet, here we are again, discussing the same problems, which have worsened due to its managed decline of services.

A decade and a half of neglect and a failure to act has left Scotland’s health service at breaking point. Under Neil Gray’s tenure as health secretary, our NHS has been allowed to slip further into a permanent crisis. Waiting lists have hit record highs, with one in six Scots now stuck waiting for care.

More than 9,000 patients have been left languishing on waiting lists for more than two years—two years, Deputy Presiding Officer. Those are not just statistics; they are our families, our friends, and our communities.

Patients are waiting at A and E departments. Recent figures revealed that around 40 per cent of A and E patients are not being seen within four hours—a target that the SNP has not met anywhere since July 2020. Meanwhile, Scotland has the lowest life expectancy in western Europe, and delayed discharges are at a record high, occupying 650,000 hospital days in 2023. That is the SNP’s legacy: unmet targets, broken promises, and a health service that is in decline.

Let us not forget cancer treatment waiting times, which is another area in which the SNP has failed miserably. The target to start cancer treatment within 62 days of urgent referral has not been met in more than a decade. That is utterly unacceptable.

It is clear that one health secretary after another has failed Scotland, including the current office-holder, Neil Gray. The problems go far beyond his incompetence; they are systemic and the result of a Government that is more focused on excuses than solutions. When Neil Gray admitted that there was, effectively, nothing new in his most recent plan to prevent the NHS from winter collapse, he confirmed everything that we already know. He has no vision, shows no leadership and has no ideas. What is his role now if John Swinney must step in to clean up his mess? John Swinney’s sudden involvement as interim health secretary speaks volumes about the SNP’s lack of confidence in its health secretary, and his empty-rhetoric speech was heavy on spin. Our NHS staff and patients deserve a health secretary who is not sidelined by their own Government and distracted by personal scandals.

The blame does not end with Neil Gray. For 17 years, the SNP has failed to plan effectively for Scotland’s health and social care workforce. Staff are the backbone of our NHS, yet they have been treated as an afterthought. Nurses, doctors and social care workers are burning out under the strain of staff shortages, increased demands and insufficient resources. Our healthcare workers have experienced moral injury. Dedicated professionals have worked in a system under the SNP that has treated staff as though they are expendable resources, rather than the essential lifeblood of our health service.

Social care remains in chaos, and patients are paying the price. Just look at the SNP’s handling of its flagship policy, the national care service. We could see how flawed it was; so could the trade unions, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and other experts. However, the SNP pressed on regardless, led by an overmatched, though self-assured, minister for public health, and flushed £30 million down the drain—money that could have gone to the front line. That is what oblivious incompetence looks like.

As Matt McLaughlin of Unison put it, John Swinney’s promises are little more than “reannouncements” of pledges that the SNP has already failed to deliver. Colin Pullman of the Royal College of Nursing described the state of Scotland’s hospitals as “distressing”, with staff forced to provide patient care in corridors and other inappropriate locations. Dr Iain Kennedy of the BMA warned that without urgent reform, the NHS might not survive another year.

We cannot afford more dithering from the SNP. The Audit Scotland report could not have been clearer. There is no credible plan for NHS reform. Instead, the SNP continues to lurch from one crisis to the next, with no strategic vision and no leadership. The Government is failing both patients and staff.

The Scottish Conservatives are not here just to criticise; we are here to propose solutions. We have a policy paper, “Modern, Efficient, Local: A new contract between Scotland’s NHS and the public”, which sets out how we would implement a 10-year workforce plan that prioritises recruitment, retention and support for front-line staff. We would reinvest the funds wasted on the SNP’s failed national care service into localised, effective social care. Mental health spending would reach 10 per cent of the NHS budget, ensuring support for the growing number of Scots who are struggling with mental health issues. We would hold Scottish Government ministers and NHS managers accountable for their failures and focus resources where they are needed most. We would also take decisive action to reduce waiting times by standardising best practice across Scotland’s hospitals, introducing initiatives such as super Saturdays for elective surgery and making better use of off-peak scanning.

It is time for change. The SNP has had 18 years, and it has failed. Patients are suffering, staff are burned out, and our NHS is on life support. Neil Gray is not the answer; he is not the leader that Scotland’s health service deserves. Today, we urge Neil Gray to do the right thing and resign as health secretary, and for Maree Todd, who said she was in charge of the failure of the flagship national care service, to be held accountable—although I will not be holding my breath that the SNP Government will do the right thing. The people of Scotland deserve better: better leadership, better care and a better future for our NHS.

I move amendment S6M-16252.2, to insert at end:

“; notes that the Scottish National Party administration has failed to deliver improvements to social care in Scotland, despite wasting nearly £30 million and years of civil servants’ time on its failed National Care Service, and calls on Neil Gray to resign as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, following his disastrous tenure in office.”