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Daily Record
Daily Record
Politics
Peter Davidson

Anas Sarwar accuses Nicola Sturgeon of breaking her own treatment time law on 490,000 occasions

Anas Sarwar clashed with Nicola Sturgeon during First Minister's Questions accusing the SNP leader of breaking her own law more than 490,000 times.

The Scottish Labour leader probed Sturgeon on her record around a number of issues currently facing the health service north of the border.

During a fiery exchange the Glasgow MSP accused the SNP leader of presiding over increased waiting lists and staff shortages in the NHS.

Sturgeon hit back at Sarwar saying she was proud of her record on health since taking over from Alex Salmond as First Minister.

Sarwar asked Sturgeon: "Let's remember that there is a legal guarantee for treatment within 12 weeks. The number of people waiting over a year when Nicola Sturgeon took office was 21.

"As of today, that number is over 30,000 of our fellow Scots waiting over a year. Not the legal 12 weeks waiting over a year for inpatient treatment, like a hip replacement, knee replacement, or a heart operation.

"So let's look at Nicola Sturgeon record on the NHS. She's broken her own treatment time law 490,000 times. She's cut over 4000 beds from our NHS and on her watch we now have record vacancies for nurses and midwives.

"We are 6000 nurses and midwives short. This is a litany of failures. A black hole in our public finances, railways that don't run, ferries that don't sail and soaring waiting lists in our NHS.

"Which one is Nicola Sturgeon most ashamed of?"

Sarwar's questions came after a spending review presented by Finance Secretary Kate Forbes on Tuesday revealed that public service funding will be cut over the next four years.

The NHS and social security were the exception as funding is expected to rise in both areas.

Sturgeon replied to Sarwar by saying: "I am proud of the work that this government does to support the NHS.

"I'm proud of the fact that there are 1000s more people working in our NHS and I'm proud of the fact that I think the NHS budget has increased by about 90% in cash terms since this government took office.

" Anas Sarwar literally must be the only person in the country, perhaps the only person on the planet, that doesn't understand or is not not willing to understand the impact of a global pandemic on health services in Scotland and around the world.

"We were seeing significant improvements before the pandemic, the pandemic when we literally had to pause surgery and other treatments in the NHS has clearly set that back.

"Now we are investing and introducing the initiatives to catch up on that progress."

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