John Swinney has taken direct control of his Government’s response to Scotland’s crisis-hit NHS. The First Minister is chairing weekly health service meetings and he intervened over Christmas to help combat the deadly flu virus.
He also visited an accident and emergency unit in Edinburgh earlier this year to understand the “enormity” of the challenges. Scottish Labour have said the revelations show Health Secretary Neil Gray has been “sidelined”.
Experts warn the NHS is at breaking point, with demand for care soaring and staffing levels at breaking point. Over 800,000 Scots are on waiting lists and nearly 1700 people waited over twelve hours in A+E over Christmas.
Gray is Swinney’s Health Secretary, but we can reveal the FM has taken a hands on approach since late last year.
He is in charge of weekly meetings with NHS leaders including Gray and health service chiefs. In an interview with the Record, the FM said: “Over the Christmas holidays, since parliament broke up, I have been convening with Neil a number of calls because obviously we have seen the data on flu and realising the significance and the impact of flu on the system.
“I think we have had about six calls which involved leading figures in all aspects of the health and care system across the country. [This was] the Government and health boards, Public Health Scotland, Scottish Ambulance Service, NHS 24, Health and Social Care Partnerships.”
Asked if he had taken direct control of the health service, he said: “I am working with Neil to make sure that we give everything we can to make sure the National Health Service is able to navigate its way through the challenges that we are facing.
His leadership role included a visit to the NHS 24 call centre in Dundee and to a busy A&E at the height of the flu crisis: “I felt I needed to understand that directly and vividly from my own perspective. So I spent [a] Saturday evening in the emergency department of Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and I obviously saw a lot of congestion.”
He added: “It is the type of really visible, hands-on experience which is invaluable for me as First Minister in looking at what we are wrestling with and what can we most effectively put in place to support the system.”
He said of the NHS workers: “In terms of what the staff were saying to me, clearly they were under enormous pressure. And they were giving it their all.”
Swinney, who took over from Humza Yousaf last year, said he had “three big conclusions” from visiting the unit helping lead the response over the festive period: “Firstly, that the messaging and the actions that we can take to support people to get the right care in the right place is absolutely fundamental. Secondly, the strength of the system is in the collaborative nature of all the different players from different parts of the system, making their contribution.”
“Thirdly is the importance of ensuring that we do everything constantly we can to reduce the level of delayed discharge within hospitals because that is actually the root of the challenge.”
All public services are under strain, but Swinney said: “I think the NHS is under the most amount of pressure.” He added: “We’ve got to be intensely focused on increasing the number of cases that are dealt with – about making sure people get speedier access to treatment – and that we can support people to get care at the earliest possible opportunity. That’s the focus of the work that I am undertaking just now.”
Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: “That the First Minister is taking personal responsibility for something as important as our NHS is welcome, but it appears that Neil Gray has been sidelined – the question is why it’s taken so long. The truth is that John Swinney has been at the heart of this SNP government for nearly 18 years — this meltdown has happened on his watch. Scotland’s NHS needs a change of direction and Scottish Labour is ready to deliver it.”
Swinney was challenged by Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar last week over the agonising waits experienced by families in A&E. Sarwar raised a case of a retired police officer who was forced to lie on the floor of an A&E ward for more than five hours in “excruciating pain”.
The distressed daughter of the 65-year-old claimed the SNP Government “couldn’t run a bath” after she was forced to watch her dad lie in agony.
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