The Auditor General’s report confirms: "NHS funding is not keeping pace with increasing demand and the needs of an ageing population."
In March 2015 254,911 people were waiting for outpatient appointments. By March 2016 that figure had risen by nearly 21’000 to 275,517.
Equally shaming is the ineptitude with which this government plans the future of
the NHS in Scotland. The major requirement -
The Auditor general’s report states: "It is not clear what the Scottish Government’s aim of shifting the balance of care looks like and how it will be achieved."
Further, this government’s National Clinical Strategy remains "uncertain and a clear plan has yet to be put in place.”
The report confirms, and I quote or summarise, that there are no measures or milestones in place that will allow progress to be measured against the strategy. That the financial implications of implementing the strategy are unknown and it is unclear what funding will be available for it, and that the implications for the workforce have still to be identified.
This government does not know the numbers of various professions or the training and skills required for the new ways of working outlined in its strategy are even though 2020 looms large in the calendar. the report confirms that this government has no real idea on workforce requirements for the 2020 vision. And all the while health boards are increasing their spend on temporary staff.
The report suggests that "Some progress is being made in developing new models of
care, but this has yet to translate to widespread change in local areas and major
health inequalities remain.”
The mantra that independence fixes all of the nation's problems might ring around the minds of those who do not wish to acknowledge the deep and constant failings of this government, but for those who choose to look and care the evidence on this government's handling of the NHS is one of failure.
Peter Urpeth
6a New Street
Back
Isle of Lewis
SNP government's “NHS shame laid bare”
16 November 2016
Sir,
With the ink still wet on the new independence bill, the SNP government is nothing but shamed by the levels of health inequality and poor service planning that exists in the NHS in Scotland in 2016, and as confirmed by the fully independent Auditor General's report.
Whilst the Review of Public Health published in February 2016 highlighted that the health of Scotland’s population was still poor and that significant health inequalities still exist, the recent Auditor General's report confirms that the NHS under this SNP government, with its constant promise to do what is right for Scotland, has met only one of its eight key performance targets.