This is our NHS. It’s the most treasured part of our society, there by our side throughout our lives, bringing us into the world, nursing us when we are sick and easing our suffering and pain in our final years.
We have a responsibility to do all we can to ease the pressure on this vital public service because it needs our help now as much as we need its help. This crisis has in no small part been caused by staff shortages set against a backdrop of huge demand for services.
Hiring more doctors and nurses is an essential part of the solution. But we also need a wider debate on how to reduce demand on a service everyone in Scotland values.
The Tory right wing, opportunistic as ever, believes reducing demand is best done by charging patients. Former health secretary Sajid Javid has suggested people should pay to see their GP. This would hit those on modest means and result in the ill not seeing a doctor. It would also end the principle of the NHS being free at the point of use.
Like many Tory politicians’ utterances, it should be discounted and rejected. A better way has been suggested by Dawn Skelton, professor of ageing and health at Glasgow Caledonian University.
Are we leading unhealthy lifestyles? Share your views in the comments.
Scots benefit from a free health service, but our nation’s relationship with booze, substance abuse, poor diet and smoking habits put added pressure on the system. She said: “Physical activity reduces our risk of heart disease, stroke and cancer. It reduces symptoms of disease. It is a miracle treatment but it is not in a pill.”
A population that looked after itself would reduce demand on the NHS. A twin track approach is necessary. Scots should be encouraged financially to be healthier, coupled with tougher public health policies that tackle problem drinking and other ills.
The NHS can be saved. The solution is in our own hands.
This is no game
The Levelling Up fund was a pet project of Boris Johnson and was meant to replace the EU’s regional development grants. Brexit put a stop to Brussels’ cash despite it helping many post-industrial areas over the years, including Scotland.
The idea of Westminster handing out cash to worthy projects is fine in theory but as ever the devil is in the detail. There have now been two rounds of Levelling Up funding and each has contained eyebrow-raising decisions.
If you live in the constituency of a Tory Cabinet minister, the chances of your local funding application being approved appear to be significantly higher. Meanwhile, five of the most cash-strapped local authorities in Scotland missed out completely.
Levelling Up is the same old Tory way of politics.
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