Meeting of the Parliament 04 June 2024
First, those figures are neither misleading nor factually inaccurate. They were taken from data that has been published by Public Health Scotland.
I will now focus on waiting times, because those are the most obvious sign of SNP failure. The fact that 840,000 Scots are languishing on waiting lists for tests, diagnosis or treatment is shameful. That is one in six of the population. That is somebody that you know—a family member or a friend. It is a national scandal.
When Humza Yousaf was the health secretary, he announced targets to eradicate the longest waits—to reduce them to below two years for out-patients and in-patients by August and September 2022. Almost two years on, none of those targets has been met—not a single one. Instead of reducing, the number of people who are waiting is going up. There have been an extra 77,000 in the past year alone.
Part of the solution that was suggested by the SNP in 2015—and which Labour supported—was national treatment centres. However, they have been paused indefinitely in Ayrshire and Arran, Tayside, Grampian, Lothian and Lanarkshire. What will the SNP do instead? It is clear that the recovery plan is not working. Waiting times are going up and more people are waiting, so I recommend that the cabinet secretary tears it up and starts again.
Before closing, I will deal with comments that were made by Stephen Flynn. Suggesting that Labour wants to privatise the NHS is disgusting, dishonest, and frankly desperate, as he struggles to save his seat in the election. Perhaps he was not aware of the SNP’s record in government. The total number of private hospital admissions in Scotland in 2023 was 46,000, which is 11 per cent higher than the number in 2022 and 32 per cent higher than the number in 2019. There were more private admissions than in any previous year on record, and the majority were paid for by the SNP Government. Shockingly, self-pay admissions are up 8 per cent and are at their highest level since records began. It is the SNP that is presiding over a two-tier health service, and it is the SNP that has failed to get to grips with the crisis in our NHS.
The NHS is in crisis and the SNP has no idea how to turn it around. Not only is it time for new ideas, it is time for a new Government, because this one is incapable of making things work. In 1948, Labour created the NHS. In 1997, we rescued the NHS and on 5 July 2024—the 76th birthday of the NHS—we will rescue it again.
I move amendment S6M-13466.1, to insert at end:
“is concerned that 840,300 people in Scotland are on NHS waiting lists for tests and treatment, of which over 87,000 have waited more than a year; notes that more patients are forced to use the private sector, with the latest data showing that the number of privately paid for hospital admissions is 80% higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic, and calls on the Scottish Government to set out a plan for reducing waiting times.”
16:41Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.