The bombshell revelation that health chiefs are being forced to consider partial privatisation of our NHS is shocking.
Labour created the NHS free at the point of use and we will defend it for as long as we exist. But this was not a bolt from the blue, or the work of ideological mandarins.
This is what NHS chiefs have been forced to consider to keep the NHS afloat after 15 years of SNP cuts and failure. Our NHS is on life support – and the blame for that lies squarely with the Scottish Government.
The running of Scotland's NHS is the sole responsibility of the Scottish Government. That means the SNP government set its budget,
decide its priorities and are responsible for its outcomes.
It’s on their watch that we have seen people waiting 19 hours for an ambulance; people waiting on a trolly in A&E for 17 hours; people dying due to short staffing.
The SNP always look for someone else to blame – but the blame lies with them. One in seven Scots are on an NHS waiting list. That’s almost 750,000 people waiting for diagnoses, appointments or for treatment.
Delayed discharge is soaring, and our A&E departments are simply overwhelmed – with lives being lost. Staff are being let down and asked to do the impossible. Patients are being let down and asked to accept the unacceptable. Scotland is being failed.
As I write, we are facing a humanitarian crisis in our NHS this winter. Scotland’s nurses are preparing to strike and Scotland’s hospitals are already at breaking point.
But where is the Health Secretary? While our NHS crumbles, Humza Yousaf is nowhere to be seen. When he is not telling nurses to stop ‘patronising’ him, he is attempting to spin his way out of this crisis. But that won’t wash.
He owns this crisis and he is responsible for the state of our NHS. He has no answers and he has no understanding of the scale of the challenge. He has to resign, now.
We simply can’t let this SNP crash our NHS and leave it open to privatisation. Only a Labour government will protect our NHS from the SNP and the Tories. Let’s make that happen.
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