Dear All
Under the SNP Government, health was
supposed to be a flagship policy.
Now, we know the truth after the tenture of
Scotland’s unpopular Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
It was a shambles; the latest twist in the
saga is a huge increase in the numbers of patients facing delays in treatment
at accident and emergency departments.
Labour leader Johann Lamont sprung new
statistics on Alex Salmond at First Minister's Questions, putting him firmly on
the back foot.
Johann Lamont is using FOI to cite figures which
showed those "languishing" in A&E departments had trebled in some
parts of the country.
Trebled!
This is just another example of
incompetence and shows why the SNP parachuted Nicola Sturgeon out of health
before the cracks of her disastrous leadership appeared.
Sturgeon was interested in driving down
targets in certain areas, rather than overall performance and people were taken
in by the hype, smoke and mirrors approach.
Everything in the Scottish Government has
effectively stopped as the SNP Ministers chase the ill fated independence
dream.
Lamont is on the right track to challenge
First Minister Alex Salmond about A&E waiting times after 84-year-old John
McGarrity was said to have spent eight hours on a trolley in a corridor at
Glasgow's Western Infirmary.
Salmond doesn’t like to talk about personal
cases of suffering rather he prefers to talk about general events and concepts
coupled with rhetoric of ‘the rocks will melt in the Sun’ waffle he parrots
continually.
She told Salmond:
"In John McGarrity's area of Glasgow,
the number of patients who waited over four hours to be seen has more than
trebled, going up from 10,100 in 2009 to 31,700 this year. Let's look across
Scotland. In NHS Lanarkshire, the Health Secretary's own backyard, the number
of patients waiting more than four hours in A&E has also more than trebled.
In Grampian, the First Minister's own backyard, there was a 1300 increase in
patients waiting more than four hours in A&E compared to last year."
As usual rather than accept responsibility,
Alex Salmond choose to blame someone else despite the fact the SNP is in charge
of health.
Budgets are being stripped in other areas
to ensure money is available for painting Nicola Sturgeon as a success, this is
a political decision.
So Salmond’s claim of "extraordinary
financial pressure" doesn’t stack up in my opinion.
Salmond added on his claim of extra funding
that, this would not have happened under Labour which is in no "position
to pose as the defender of the National Health Service."
We are living under a right wing
government, that is what the SNP is, and to make a claim of what Labour would
or would not do while not in a position to do so, is the hallmark of a child.
When the earlier disaster in health was outed
to the public domain, the SNP Government suddenly found £50 million of funding
announced by Health Secretary Alex Neil.
The speed that this cash was announced says
a lot, not that the SNP were proactive only that they kept cash back.
Johann Lamont concluded:
"If the First Minister ever made it
out of Bute House to the real world and met a patient waiting for treatment on
a trolley, we can assume he would reflect as the person was lying in front of
him and say, 'Listen, you are more satisfied with the NHS than ever
before'."
The hits by Labour are certainly striking home
on Alex Salmond as his approval rating continues to drop.
Far from being an asset, he is heading
towards being a liability, with the latest indy poll showing hardening of a No
vote against indy, people are wising up, this SNP Government is like the last
days of Tony Blair.
And that case was terminal.
The problems in the NHS can be placed
firmly at the door of Nicola Sturgeon, she set the culture; Alex Neil is still
floundering in the debris.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow
University
2 comments:
The SNP are going for that old trap, one that eventually beats all poliical parties.
Jingoism.
It's about all they've got left.
George, the SNP never did care, they are greedy wee neds using any means to get power.
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