Meeting of the Parliament 14 June 2023
I cannot—I am sorry.
That applies to the health service not only in Scotland but in Northern Ireland, Wales and England. The Labour motion completely fails to acknowledge that, but it is the reality of the situation. We are not alone in that.
It is true that the Scottish Government decides policy and funding for the NHS, and it is also true that the Scottish Government funds the NHS to a higher level, proportionately, than other Governments across the UK—[Interruption.]
It is the Labour Party members, and their friends in the Tory party, who do not like those facts.
The SNP-led Government’s £100 billion NHS recovery plan has delivered a significant reduction in the number of two-year out-patient waits. The waiting time targets have already led to a substantial increase in the number of patients seen, with almost 56,000 in-patients or day cases, and more than 311,000 out-patients, seen in the quarter to the end of December 2022. Those are the highest numbers of patients seen since the onset of the Covid pandemic.
With regard to staffing, once again, we must consider the issue in the wider context of the rest of the UK. Since the SNP first entered government, NHS staffing has increased by 22.7 per cent. Recent research from the end of 2022 shows that NHS Scotland has higher staffing per head than NHS England. Scotland has also invested in the future sustainability of the NHS, with NHS agenda for change staff being paid better here than anywhere else in the UK.
There is an issue with bank staff—as MSPs, we all hear that. Perhaps the cabinet secretary can reflect on that in summing up, because a lot of staff are saying that they can get better pay as bank staff.
Finally, the motion touches on the rise in the number of patients having to pay for private care, and it is important to analyse that increase in a wider context. The rise in the number of people paying for private healthcare is, again, not unique to Scotland; it affects health services right across the UK. Wales has similar rates, and self-pay admissions have been at their highest or joint highest levels over the past four years in eight out of nine English regions.
The rise in the number of patients across the UK having to use private healthcare is very concerning to me, and it is probably concerning for others. However, unlike the Tories—and perhaps Labour as well—who might be happy for our NHS to be run by private providers like in England, and Labour, whose private finance initiative policies caused unprecedented damage to our NHS, the Scottish Government continues to support the principle of a public service that is free at the point of use and need.