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Sir,

 

Mr Harper in his letter of 25 November, asks about about my 'agenda' and my 'sources' in daring to criticise the management of the NHS in Scotland.

 

I have stated my sources of information in previous letters - Audit Scotland and the NHS's own report in Scotland in 2016. Not, as he might think, simply the Labour Party manifesto but the politically neutral and thorough assessments of the current situation that these organisations provide.

A reader of Audit Scotland's report on the NHS does not have to cherry pick snippets of negativity, the conclusions and detailed analysis pin-point those failings. Mr Harper might wish to take a worryingly complacent and unquestioning view of the SNP's record on the NHS, but I for one take no solace from the fact that whilst some aspects of the NHS are run well, key targets are being missed and key parts of the service are being mismanaged.

 

Under the SNP the NHS is failing to respond adequately to change and to the demands for staffing that follows. I suspect that so long as he can say that the NHS in Scotland is performing better in some regards than that in England, he is content. Well I am not.

 

He may wish to hark on about Labour Party history but meanwhile, under the administration that he supports without a moment of reflection or scrutiny, the NHS is failing to meet eight of its nine major targets and its continued failure to properly plan staffing levels is seeing £175 million a year of NHS cash being wasted on agency staffing.

 

My agenda is also straightforward. That of caring for the future of the NHS and the NHS in Scotland and campaigning for that future.

 

Under the SNP the NHS in Scotland is in the midst of a staffing crisis that is having real and sustained impact on the lives of patients. Also, sustained cuts to both the NHS and local government by the SNP administration have done nothing to address the crisis in social care, especially for the elderly in this nation, which is nothing short of a national disgrace.

 

I for one have never supported austerity economics, and I will always campaign against such policies within or without of the Labour Party. But instead of using tax raising powers at national and local levels in a way that could alleviate the excesses of Tory austerity, the SNP prefers to cut the budgets of vital services. We need to use tax and council tax raising powers in Scotland to provide funds for these services and also to have equitable taxation policies that mean that the wealthiest pay their fair share towards the services from which they have benefitted on their climb to prosperity.

 

Peter Urpeth

6a New Street

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Isle of Lewis

 

Letter: Scottish Government cuts affecting health service  

3 December 2016