SNP’s creeping privatisation of the NHS I love is hypocritical and a national disgrace. Our health service is in permanent crisis mode, says SANDESH GULHANE, Scottish Tory health spokesman

I don’t need to tell you how incredible the people who work for the NHS are.

We have seen their efforts during the pandemic; their dazzling courage in the face of a deadly virus that had gripped the world, their resilience, their care, their humanity.

Having worked in healthcare for almost a decade, I know that my colleagues and friends are hands down the best of us.

So when Prime Minister John Swinney said that Scotland National Health Service had to be protected at all costs at the end of last month, he was right.

Yet today his seemingly noble statement has been exposed as one of intense hypocrisy, on top of inexcusable incompetence.

As the Mail on Sunday investigation shows, the government is not shying away from privatization SNP has embraced it – by committing an extraordinary £850 million of public money to try to repair the damage they have done to our precious National Health Service.

Dr. Sandesh Gulhane has criticized the SNP’s hypocrisy over the NHS

The double whammy of the SNP’s dismal workforce planning and the failure of Humza Yousaf’s weak recovery plan has left our NHS in permanent crisis mode.

Now that the peak winter period is behind us, we should see significant improvements. But because of the SNP’s mismanagement, that is not the case. More than 840,000 Scots are on an NHS waiting list. The cancer targets have not been achieved for more than twelve years.

Scotland has by far the worst drug death figures in Europe. Life expectancy is the lowest of any region or country in Britain, lower than ten years ago.

Mental health wait times for adolescents have increased.

Even ‘blue light’ services have deteriorated, with longer ambulance response times, while patients are routinely supported and treated in corridors or even car parks, putting them and staff at risk.

Patients have been recorded waiting more than 2,100 days for reconstructive surgery, more than 1,500 days for restorative dentistry and more than 1,450 days for orthopedic surgery.

These figures can only be described as a national scandal and have led to another example of creeping privatization, due entirely to the SNP’s mismanagement and misplaced priorities.

It’s no wonder that so many Scots now feel they have no choice but to spend their hard-earned savings on private healthcare.

Between 2019 and last year, the number turning to private providers almost doubled, to 19,000.

And as such, we are in very real danger of creating a two-tiered healthcare system, in which those who can pay increasingly turn to private healthcare to access treatment.

Those who can’t have to wait out a deteriorating NHS, hoping they get the same care. Is that the NHS that Mr Swinney wants to protect? Because that is a direct consequence of the SNP’s decisions.

Many Scots who cannot find an NHS dentist, get a GP appointment or, most terrifying of all, know that the delays they may face in cancer treatment can be life-threatening, now feel they have to pay for the treatment they deserve and can expect. as a matter of course.

This is a result of the SNP’s inability to plan ahead, especially when it comes to staffing. Cuts in the number of medical and dental students have led to a shortage of doctors, nurses and dentists.

The SNP’s imposition of higher taxes than any other part of Britain exacerbates the problem by making it difficult to recruit and retain senior staff in Scotland – a point increasingly highlighted by the British Medical Association and the British Dental Association bring forward.

This abysmal staff planning has led to a new privatization element in the SNP’s management of our NHS: the number of agency and temporary contract workers now needed to plug the gaps in provision.

The Scottish Government now spends over half a billion pounds a year on agency staff alone.

Meanwhile, there are vacancies for nurses in most care homes, and a recent survey by the Royal College of Nursing found that 60 percent of nurses are considering or actively planning to leave their roles.

That is an alarming but understandable response to the pressures under which dedicated NHS frontline staff are working.

Conservative governments have increased UK NHS spending every year, and we have never advocated privatisation.

But the UK government’s position is irrelevant when it comes to Scotland’s NHS, which has been fully devolved and has been the sole responsibility of the SNP for the past seventeen years.

Problems and shortcomings in its management and operation are the result of decisions made by successive SNP health secretaries and have nothing to do with Westminster.

Sadly, the SNP’s management of our NHS has been appalling.

Despite their rhetoric, they have failed to match the growth in spending seen in other parts of Britain since 2007 – despite being given the resources to do so.

As a result, Scotland’s NHS is relatively underfunded compared to the rest of Britain, as the nationalists have diverted money to other policy areas.

Yet, for all their whining, grievances and invective, the SNP have nothing to offer as a solution to the crisis they have created.

Instead of practical measures to address what is now a national emergency, all they produce is alarmism and rhetoric.

Scotland’s NHS and its patients deserve better. That’s why this year the Scottish Conservatives put forward a series of proposals for a modern, efficient, local NHS.

We have detailed plans in place to increase capacity, reduce inefficiencies, improve accessibility and detect diseases at an earlier stage.

Our plans include providing an additional 1,000 GPs and a national guarantee that patients can get a doctor’s appointment within a week.

Standardizing best practices to increase the number of procedures that can be performed on the same day, reducing wait times.

A 24/7 digital healthcare service that would give patients easier access to their own records.

Better conditions for staff and a good workforce plan that would reduce the risk of burnout and support dedicated NHS workers.

And a new personal contract with the NHS that would encourage healthier choices and tackle threats before they become a burden on the healthcare system.

Unlike the SNP, we intend to do all of that within the existing NHS budget, while sticking to its founding principles, ensuring it always remains free at the point of use, and providing the treatment that Scots want as their can expect justice.

The SNP’s record in government is one of failures in almost every department.

But nowhere has it been clearer and more impactful than in our NHS – at enormous cost to those who work there and to those who rely on its services.

Yet John Swinney’s government has not put forward a single constructive proposal for reparation.

Instead, without any basis, SNP ministers have accused their opponents of the very thing they have secretly relied on to mask their failures.

The Scottish Conservatives have real solutions. And in key seats across the country, only a vote for us can oust the SNP and begin the journey to recovery.