Saturday, 9 November 2019

SNP management of NHS Scotland

The SNP have decided to save the NHS across the UK, a cheap political stunt especially when considering the mismanagement of the Scottish NHS under the SNP.

When asked about SNP NHS failings, the SNP will point to England NHS, a deflection tactic to avoid any real scrutiny of their failings.

The recent interview conducted by BBC's Nick Robinson sees SNP Ian Blackford squirm when quizzed on SNP failures on the NHS. Blackford thinks a patient satisfaction survey is all the evidence he needs to demonstrate how wonderful the SNP are at managing our NHS. What he doesn't mention  is how that figure is derived. There were over 4 million patients treated in Scotland in 2018, the number who completed the 'patient satisfaction survey' represented only 3.9% of patients treated that year.

Then we have nationalist supporters who think their own personal experience is all the evidence one needs to evaluate how well the SNP NHS is performing. This one was the chairman of a cancer charity which makes his comments even more abhorrent.



The recent Audit Scotland report shows our NHS is in crisis with a £1.8bn shortfall. The rate of SNP cuts to the health services has had a devastating result on health boards budgets. 


This squeeze on funding and the SNP mismanagement of our NHS is impacting on patient care/treatments/waiting times etc. Only 2 out of 8 key NHS waiting time targets were met in 2018/19.

A&E targets were only met 3 times in the last 12 years.


The 18 week referral to treatment time pathway has not met its target since 2014.


The 95% target for those waiting for Outpatient appointments within 12 weeks has also been missed for years.


When it comes to something like cancer one would expect to be seen quickly, as we all know, time taken to treat cancer can be a matter of live or death. However, the SNP are failing on this critical target. The target has only been met 3 times in the last 3 years for the 31 day target and never for the 62 day target.

These graphs/figures are not just numbers they represent people who are suffering and perhaps even dying before they even get to see a specialist or get to start their treatment. 

These are just a few examples of SNP NHS failings, there are many more but don't be too despondent, the 'look what's happening over there' brigade has arrived to save us. Its people like this who refuse to accept any criticism of the SNP's management of the NHS that allows the SNP to get away with destroying our NHS.