This week, the Daily Record is assessing the huge challenges facing our GP surgeries and hospitals amid spiralling waiting times and a dwindling workforce. Our NHS SOS series is examining the staffing crisis and show the true extent of the workforce problems, with vacancies having a real impact on our care.
Today, we speak to Dr Iain Kennedy, the chair of BMA Scotland, who offers a withering assessment of the performance of Scotland's health service since the peak of the coronavirus pandemic. Nursing steward June Ramsay also warns of a mental health crisis in waiting among ward staff amid growing pressures and mounting tragedies.
Three years on from Covid and the ripple effects are still being felt with long waiting times for treatment and a rise in excess deaths. Throughout Scotland’s NHS queues for treatment and diagnoses have grown exponentially since the Scottish Government halted routine screenings and suspended non-emergency operations. It has resulted in some patients’ diagnoses coming at a more advanced stage.
