'John Swinney's head is completely in the sand over NHS crisis', warns Liberal Democrats

The First Minister has been accused of having his head “completely in the sand” over the current NHS crisis.

John Swinney was challenged by both Scottish Labour and Liberal Democrat leaders on Thursday during First Minister’s Questions following a new report that revealed promises to improve the NHS have not been met, despite increased spending and staffing.

The Audit Scotland report found that there has been a £3bn real-terms increase in spending in the NHS, but the service remains “financially unsustainable”.

It also criticised the Scottish Government’s “implementation gap” in meeting its promises.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar described the findings as a “damning indictment” of the SNP and “devastating” for patients and staff.

“[The report] found that despite more money and more staff, NHS Scotland’s performance has not improved in line with commitments made by the Scottish Government,” Sarwar said.

“It says NHS boards are struggling to breakeven, with seven requiring Government loans. And it exposes the implementation gap between SNP announcements and the reality for patients.”

He added: “It is a damning indictment on John Swinney that despite his promises, long waits persist and in his hands, the NHS is in Audit Scotland’s words ‘unsustainable’”.

Scottish LibDem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton also questioned Swinney over his management of the NHS.

“I’m sorry to say, but the First Minister’s head is completely in the sand about the crisis in our NHS,” Cole-Hamilton said.

“Everybody knows somebody who has been let down. Let me tell [Swinney] what the human cost looks like.”

Cole-Hamilton spoke of Isobel and Martyn Knight, who were travelling down a dual carriageway near Aberdeen when Isabelle suffered a violent seizure and stopped breathing.

The LibDem MSP said Martyn used “every ounce of his police training” to get her heart going again and immediately took her to Accident and Emergency.

When they arrived, Isobel was wheeled away and left alone in a corridor for six hours, according to Cole-Hamilton.

“If you can turn up at A&E having stopped breathing for minutes and not be seen for hours, what does that say about the state of our NHS?” Cole-Hamilton asked the First Minister.

Swinney said he was “very sorry” to hear about Isobel and Martyn’s experience, and he said it was his expectation that A&E should provide “immediate intervention for those in the gravest condition”.

The First Minister said there are a range of different factors that affect A&E departements at any given time – some of which are about the whole system, like delayed discharge, and others are related to immediate pressures, like the current surge in flu admissions.

“The Government is taking forward a range of interventions to ensure we are working to reduce demand so individuals like Isabelle and Martin Knight can be supported in the way I’d expect them to be,” he said.

Responding to Scottish Labour’s questions about the Audit Scotland report, Swinney said: “I accept that there are challenges in ensuring that the NHS recovers from the disruption of two years of the Covid pandemic.

“I accept that challenges exist, but there is also significant progress being made.”

He emphasised that planned and performed operations in Scotland are at the highest levels since before the pandemic, and between April and October of this year, Swinney said new outpatient waits for over a year reduced by 17.9%.

In the same period, he added that the wait list size for new inpatients and day cases over 52 weeks reduced by around 26%.

However, Sarwar pointed to a record number of people seeking private healthcare between April and June this year.

“People in pain, forced to re-mortgage their homes and spend life savings to get the treatment they need,” Sarwar said.

“The founding principles of our NHS – free and available at the point of need – is being destroyed by the SNP.”