SNP’s 17-year reign of failure on health - Alex Cole-Hamilton
Imagine slowly losing your sight while being told to wait more than three years for help. That is the reality for some patients in Scotland today.
Freedom of Information requests submitted by my party have revealed that a patient in NHS Grampian has been waiting a staggering 1253 days, or more than three years for cataract surgery.
In other health boards, the story is just as grim. Some patients have waited 869 days in Shetland, 824 days in Greater Glasgow & Clyde, and over 500 days in Fife, Lanarkshire and the Highlands.
These are not just numbers. They are human beings whose lives are being limited by treatable conditions. Cataracts cloud your vision, increase your risk of falls, and isolate you from the world. Timely surgery can transform a person’s life.
I can only imagine the panic and distress that these waits are causing for patients.
It’s no slight on NHS staff. I know how tirelessly they work and how desperate they are to give patients the care they deserve. But the hard truth is that they are being let down by a Scottish Government that has no credible plan to fix these long waits for complex treatments.
Take Shetland, where the current expected wait for cataract surgery is 323 days, almost a full year. In Ayrshire and Arran, the average is 272 days, but one in ten patients can expect to wait 432 days. That’s well over a year of missed birthdays, blurred memories, and reduced independence. And these aren’t isolated examples. They reflect a systemic failure.
One of the clearest lessons I’ve learned as an MSP is how much difference the right facilities can make. When we fought for a new Edinburgh Eye Pavilion, I worked side-by-side with campaigners and clinicians who explained how the old building was holding them back.
Staff can work more efficiently and effectively if they have the right facilities available. Thanks to Liberal Democrat pressure in budget negotiations, we secured progress toward a long-overdue replacement. It’s a small but important step.
But the problems run deeper. The SNP have now had more than 17 years in charge of our NHS. Despite all the warnings, they’ve failed to build resilience, failed to invest adequately in training and infrastructure meaning we don’t have the staff we need, and failed to prepare for the inevitable increase in complex care needs as our population ages. The result? Patients waiting in pain and fear, and staff stretched to breaking point.
The SNP have repeatedly demonstrated that the NHS will never be their priority. Meanwhile, my Scottish Liberal Democrats have a track record of exposing unacceptable waits and securing results.
Now though, the scale of the crisis now requires more than pressure, it requires change. And wherever you live in Scotland, you will have a chance to demand that change next May by backing the Liberal Democrats on the peach-coloured regional ballot next May.
We need change because healthcare shouldn’t be a postcode lottery. Because access to sight-saving surgery shouldn’t depend on your health board. But most of all, because no one should have to wait three years to see clearly again.