SNP can’t be trusted to fix our health service - Ian Murray
Whenever I speak to people when out and about in south Edinburgh, there is one issue that comes up most frequently – and provokes more anger – than any other: the state of the NHS.
Under the SNP, the NHS is facing one crisis after another. Every week, thousands of Scots face dangerously long waits for urgent treatment due to the SNP’s failure to get a grip on wait times. Every morning across the country, too many find themselves stuck on the phone trying to do something as simple as get a GP appointment.
Meanwhile, thousands are being forced to go private to escape long waiting lists. These aren’t wealthy people. They’re ordinary people who the NHS is for using precious savings or even taking out loans, who face a stark choice: pay or pain. Those without savings or access to a loan are left without even that grim choice.
And the waiting lists. As Anas Sarwar highlighted in the recent leaders’ debate, in Scotland there are over 5000 people waiting more than 2 years, compared to a few hundred in England, which has 10 times as many people.
In fact, in England, where the NHS is run by the UK Labour government, the health service is slowly but surely recovering from 14 years of conservative neglect. Waiting lists are at their lowest point in 3 years, and ambulance response times at their fastest in 5 years. The Labour government provided over 5 million extra appointments in the first year in office.
But in Scotland it’s a very different picture. Rarely does a day go by when I don’t hear from someone living in the south of Edinburgh stuck on a waiting list or struggling to get an appointment with a GP. These are stories with profound human consequences: older people living in pain; families in anguish.
I’ve campaigned on the issue of GP provision and access for years, as south Edinburgh’s population has grown without local services keeping up, pushing the Scottish Government and NHS Lothian to deliver the services residents rightly expect. I’m continuing to call for a new practice for South Gilmerton, an area which has seen a lot of development in recent years.
If elected on 7th May, Scottish Labour have promised to negotiate a new GP contract within 100 days, bring back the family doctor and end the 8am rush for a GP appointment.
Many people in Edinburgh will also be more than familiar with the saga of the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion. The current facility was declared unfit for purpose over a decade ago. Since then, the SNP have promised a new hospital in every election, but one has yet to be delivered.
Here we are going into another election and yet again the promise is there in the SNP manifesto. How can they be trusted to deliver?
Scottish Labour have a plan to fix the mess and get the basics of the health service right again. That includes establishing an emergency mental health response service, a new workforce plan, and investing in new AI-enabled MRI and CT scanners to boost cancer detection.
The SNP have failed the NHS, but in the coming election they are asking for a third decade to sort it. Why should Scots trust them to fix a mess they caused in the first place?