Matheson must rip up "dismal" health plan and get NHS back on track

Two years on from the launch of the NHS Recovery Plan, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has called on the Health Secretary to rip up the Scottish Government’s "dismal" strategy and start afresh, after a second year of spiralling waiting lists, high numbers of people stuck in hospital and growing concerns about safe staffing.

Mr Cole-Hamilton said: 

“Two years ago, Humza Yousaf presented our NHS with a dismal package. Now, one in seven Scots are on a waiting list, cancer waits are worse than ever and departments are dangerously short staffed.

“It is time Michael Matheson faced the facts, ripped up this rotten offering and started the recovery strategy afresh to get our NHS back on track.

“By implementing a Staff Burnout Prevention Strategy and a Health and Social Care Staff Assembly, Scottish Liberal Democrats would champion the experience and expertise of those who know our health service best.  

“Alongside a huge workforce recruitment campaign, we need the government to scrap its billion-pound bureaucratic takeover of social care, diverting that money to staff and services and reducing the burden on hospitals and A&E departments.  

“NHS dentistry is in decay because of nationalist disinterest. That’s why we need to cut red tape and ensure that changes to the fee structures incentivise dentists to take on NHS patients, enabling all those waiting to be seen.

“We cannot continue down a doomed path. Staff and patients need new hope right now.”