Dundee West Labour
30 November 2019
Scottish Labour has laid out its positive vision for the NHS.
The intervention comes as NHS Scotland faces up to another year of challenges and missed targets under the SNP.
A UK Labour government would mean a £2 billion increase in NHS funding every year for the next 5 years with an additional £600 million a year for Scotland's social care system.
Scottish Labour has said that this increase in funding would be used to implement its plan to:
invest in our NHS workforce and staff training ensuring staffing levels accurately reflect demand;
fund general practice with a plan to encourage more doctors to choose general practice as a career choice;
increase numbers in integrated teams, such as physiotherapists and pharmacists,
ensuring people get the care they need in their community; properly integrate IT systems meaning patient’s histories are available in real-time to all clinicians in primary and secondary care;
and introduce a new estates plan that would end private-finance building projects and build the infrastructure needed in communities to deliver 21st century healthcare.
Our vision for Scotland’s health includes not only an NHS that is fit for the future but also a social care system that works with the NHS to meet people’s needs and prevent unnecessary hospital visits.
This comprehensive plan for Scotland's health service stands in stark contrast to the Tories who are willing to sell off our NHS in a trade deal with Donald Trump and the SNP who have presided over a decade of failings and have failed to plan for the future of our health service.
Under the SNP, health and social care services are facing a potential £1.8 billion blackhole within the next 4 years and Scotland’s Auditor General has repeatedly warned that the current way of working is financially unsustainable.
"Meanwhile statistics show that under the SNP's watch, NHS Scotland is failing to meet A&E targets; failing to meet cancer waiting time targets; and failing to meet treatment waiting time targets. "Labour has said that these specific failings are symptomatic of the SNP’s decade of mismanagement of NHS Scotland.
Commenting on Labour’s plan for the NHS, Richard Leonard, said:
"Labour's plans for investment would mean that the Scottish Government's spend on health and social care services would increase by £2.6 billion every year.
"That is money that could be spent on our workforce meaning patients are able to see their GP on time, to improve A&E waiting times, cancer waiting times and to deal with the bed blocking crisis that is currently gripping Scotland's NHS.
"Since the SNP came to power, Scotland's NHS has seen over a decade of mismanagement and declining services. "The current crisis in Scotland's NHS and social care cannot be allowed to continue - last year alone, more than half a million bed days were lost due to delayed discharge.
"The last decade has shown that the NHS is not safe in Nicola Sturgeon's hands any more than it is safe in Boris Johnson's hands.
"This week, Jeremy Corbyn exposed Boris Johnson's plans to sell off our NHS to Donald Trump.
"The NHS is Labour's greatest achievement, we will always place our NHS at the heart of our plans for the future of the country and we will never allow it to be sold off.
"A vote for Labour is a vote to protect our precious NHS because when Labour wins, the NHS wins."
Scottish Labour has laid out its positive vision for the NHS.
The intervention comes as NHS Scotland faces up to another year of challenges and missed targets under the SNP.
A UK Labour government would mean a £2 billion increase in NHS funding every year for the next 5 years with an additional £600 million a year for Scotland's social care system.
Scottish Labour has said that this increase in funding would be used to implement its plan to:
invest in our NHS workforce and staff training ensuring staffing levels accurately reflect demand;
fund general practice with a plan to encourage more doctors to choose general practice as a career choice;
increase numbers in integrated teams, such as physiotherapists and pharmacists,
ensuring people get the care they need in their community; properly integrate IT systems meaning patient’s histories are available in real-time to all clinicians in primary and secondary care;
and introduce a new estates plan that would end private-finance building projects and build the infrastructure needed in communities to deliver 21st century healthcare.
Our vision for Scotland’s health includes not only an NHS that is fit for the future but also a social care system that works with the NHS to meet people’s needs and prevent unnecessary hospital visits.
This comprehensive plan for Scotland's health service stands in stark contrast to the Tories who are willing to sell off our NHS in a trade deal with Donald Trump and the SNP who have presided over a decade of failings and have failed to plan for the future of our health service.
Under the SNP, health and social care services are facing a potential £1.8 billion blackhole within the next 4 years and Scotland’s Auditor General has repeatedly warned that the current way of working is financially unsustainable.
"Meanwhile statistics show that under the SNP's watch, NHS Scotland is failing to meet A&E targets; failing to meet cancer waiting time targets; and failing to meet treatment waiting time targets. "Labour has said that these specific failings are symptomatic of the SNP’s decade of mismanagement of NHS Scotland.
Commenting on Labour’s plan for the NHS, Richard Leonard, said:
"Labour's plans for investment would mean that the Scottish Government's spend on health and social care services would increase by £2.6 billion every year.
"That is money that could be spent on our workforce meaning patients are able to see their GP on time, to improve A&E waiting times, cancer waiting times and to deal with the bed blocking crisis that is currently gripping Scotland's NHS.
"Since the SNP came to power, Scotland's NHS has seen over a decade of mismanagement and declining services. "The current crisis in Scotland's NHS and social care cannot be allowed to continue - last year alone, more than half a million bed days were lost due to delayed discharge.
"The last decade has shown that the NHS is not safe in Nicola Sturgeon's hands any more than it is safe in Boris Johnson's hands.
"This week, Jeremy Corbyn exposed Boris Johnson's plans to sell off our NHS to Donald Trump.
"The NHS is Labour's greatest achievement, we will always place our NHS at the heart of our plans for the future of the country and we will never allow it to be sold off.
"A vote for Labour is a vote to protect our precious NHS because when Labour wins, the NHS wins."