Dear All
Since 2007 and before, the State of Scotland’s NHS has been
going backwards, although the SNP under Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon
managed to cover it up, eventually the truth seeped out like pus out of an open
wound.
Alex Salmond appointed unpopular Nicola Sturgeon as Health
Sec and a smoke and mirrors operation was enacted to highlight a few targets
while the rest of health system was falling apart. When the SNP dumped the
government in 2012 to chase independence, this accelerated the process
dramatically. The cracks which were opening up under Nicola Sturgeon only came
to light as she was moved to be the face of independence.
Alex Neil’s tenure was short and unremarkable, he even
fainted during an operation it was said, perhaps this was due to the sight of
blood. When Sturgeon took over from Alex Salmond; the ‘clear out’ happened to
replace old deadwood with new deadwood politicians running the departments of
Health, Education and Justice.
Nicola Sturgeon decided to appoint her pal, Shona Robison as
health sec, a woman who couldn’t run her own marriage to Stewart Hosie which
saw her MP husband fire into younger flesh. Stewart Hosie picked up a bit of
totty at Westminster
who said she had trouble keeping her knickers on. This however wasn’t a medic
problem due to sudden weight loss so Hosie couldn’t ask his wife to squeeze his
new bird for an appointment.
As a failing health sec, Shona Robison clearly out of her
depth continued to struggle on with the backing of failing First Minister
Nicola Sturgeon, right across the board the NHS in Scotland was failing under Robison’s
inept leadership. Now yet again, we are seeing the damning evidence as Audit Scotland publishes
a report on NHS Scotland that warns 'quality of care' is under threat as budget
cuts increase. We keep hearing from the SNP that Scotland is a rich country, but
where is the money going, and more importantly why is there such bad leadership
managing our health service?
It is to do with priorities; Government is used as a vehicle
for promoting independence, and clueless ministers do the ‘day job’ as a part
time job but still take a full whack of the ministerial salary. The concept of
Government is beyond the SNP, things aren’t getting better despite the
nationalist lies, they are getting worse, in Scotland, the pool of political
talent can fit into a teacup, there is no ocean of talent or as Salmond once
quipped ‘too many talented people’ in his government.
They are all shite!
What is supposed to be the flagship policy of NHS Scotland
is struggling to maintain quality of care with patients waiting longer for
treatment, targets missed and no improvement in the nation's health, so no
change there then. One way to easy the pressure is to do preventative health
measures such as exercise and control of weight, although not technically
academic in the round, the best that we get is pamphlets at GP surgeries and
fitness centres. Medics may know how the body works, the theory but the
practice of a well rounded fit person keeping a body maintained is limited I
would suggest.
Problems need to be address before they can develop but
there isn’t joined up thinking, just joined up talking shops that produce paper
and hot air and little else.
Fitness centres are an excellent way to nip things in the
bud but aren’t utilised as they should be. How much could be saved and how much
pressure could be taken off budgets if we had a healthier society developed.
Lots!
In this day and age, we still see waste of resources by bed
blocking which is a disgrace, the system isn’t slick enough, and we also see number
of patients waiting more than 12 weeks for an outpatient appointment has soared
four-fold since 2013. I had a hell of a time when I was seriously ill, I nearly
died back in 2014 which I blogged on in the past. My experience was mirrored by
others as chaos hit our over loaded service, 800 per cent delay for planned
inpatient and day case treatments, appointments cancelled. The extent of
failure is laid bare by the fact that seven out of the Scottish Government's
eight priority targets were missed for the second year in a row in 2016/17. If
you are unlucky to be in an A&E department, you are in for a long wait, the
SNP can’t keep to the four-hour A&E target. If you have cancer the
referral-to-treatment times are getting longer, and hit the treatment target
time is just a dream.
BMA Scotland chair, Dr Peter Bennie, said:
“This latest report makes clear that it is getting harder
and harder for the NHS in Scotland
to cope with continued austerity. Demands on the NHS are increasing rapidly
every year and sufficient resources are simply not being made available to meet
the needs of patients.”
The idea that there has been unprecedented" savings of
£387.4 million in 2016/17 - up 33 per cent on the previous year is a sick joke,
health isn’t cheap, and for some people who end up in hospital, the outcome for
them is final.
Cuts aren’t "unprecedented" savings, they are just
a marker to explain why care is so limited and so bad, to do the job properly,
staff need resources. In 2016/17, the health budget was a record £12.9 billion,
43 per cent of the total Scottish Government budget, a problem is a huge surge
in operating costs as demand for healthcare increases.
So, do we need a new model introduced?
I would say there is scope to explore change, certain things
need a hospital setting but other things can and possibly should be delivered
at GP level, and as we have seen we are 3,000 GPs short in Scotland ,
another SNP blunder.
Did you hear of Nicola Sturgeon announcing a recruitment drive?
Me neither.
Medicine, the teaching of students needs to be explained,
with an unhealthy Scotland ,
it seems we have plenty of training material with coughs, scraps, broken bodies
and cancer to service this industry.
Should we have a new medical school in Scotland ?
I don’t know, I am asking the question, but questions is
what should be getting asked, and on a repeat basis. It seems we are spending too
much on agency staff, including locum doctors which have increased 79 per cent
over five years to £171m.
Why hasn’t the SNP done anything about this?
How long must a problem continue in the SNP Government
before it is fixed, this state of affairs smacks of incompetence, our NHS
should be properly staffed at all times, and certainly not dependent on agency
staff to the tune of £171m.
One solution to the continued crisis by Audit Scotland is
that the Scottish Government should shift from one-year funding allocations to
three to five year funding cycles.
It said:
“The lack of financial flexibility, with NHS boards required
to break even at the end of each financial year, and lack of long-term planning
are barriers to moving more care out of hospitals.”
Why hasn’t Shona Robison adopted this, a guess would be that
she doesn’t get ‘cost over runs’ because things don’t stop being a problem
because of the new budget year.
Caroline Gardner, Auditor General for Scotland , said:
"The NHS in Scotland marks its 70th anniversary
next year, and there is widespread agreement that healthcare must be delivered
differently if it is to withstand growing pressure on services. There is no
simple solution, but these fundamental areas must be addressed if reform is to
deliver the scale of transformation that's needed across the NHS."
We don’t have a reforming Scottish Government, we have a
lame duck SNP Government with no focus other than independence, Shona Robison
failed as health sec, she has failed marriage and she has no vision.
How long must we suffer this fool in charge?
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
2 comments:
As the old saying goes, 'You had one job'.
The Painfully Slow Death of Scotland. One day we get told we need more immigrants to fix the demographic situation, usual stuff like too many old folk, not enough young. The very next day we get told women in Scotland are to be allowed the abortion pill at home. We are ruled by lunatics.
Post a Comment