John Swinney has apologised to patients after a damning report revealed the impact of overcrowding in Scots hospitals.
The First Minister today promised his “unrelenting focus” was on making sure people “get the care they deserve” from the NHS. But Labour warned the reality for patients was a health service in “permanent crisis on John Swinney’s watch”.
It comes after a report this week from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) detailed the experiences of health workers forced to deliver “corridor care” as a result of unsafe and undignified conditions in hospitals. It warned patients being temporarily cared for in corridors or offices risked becoming “normalised” as a result of overcrowding.
Colin Poolman, RCN Scotland director, said too often “people are being looked after in areas that are completely inappropriate for patient care”.
Swinney was pressed on the findings of the report at First Minister’s Questions by Anas Sarwar. The Scottish Labour leader claimed the RCN analysis laid bare the “human cost” of the “incompetence” of the Nationalists.
Sarwar said: “The reality is we have a permanent crisis in the NHS on John Swinney’s watch.”
He added the report “revealed nurses are delivering care in overcrowded or unsuitable places like corridors, cupboards and even car parks on a daily basis”.
Sarwar continued: “Staff are caring for multiple patients in a single corridor, unable to access oxygen, cardiac monitors and other lifesaving equipment.
“Patients are going into cardiac arrest while in a corridor. Incontinent patients are left with no privacy. And almost 90 per cent of nurses say patient safety is being compromised.
“Nurses describe flu patients waiting in corridors next to vulnerable patients or having to discuss their miscarriage with a couple in an overcrowded corridor.
“One nurse said – ‘I worked throughout Covid-19 and although that was a horrendous experience this lack of care in the broken system is worse’.
“This is what Scottish nurses are saying: “It is demoralising, frustrating and embarrassing. It feels like patients are a number not a patient.”
Swinney told MSPs: “The first thing I want to do is apologise to any individual who has had an unsatisfactory experience in the care they have received and in the congestion within the hospitals.”
He praised NHS staff for the “unremitting commitment that they give to ensure that the system is able to deliver as best as it can in the face of unprecedented demand”.
The RCN report also told how “demoralised” staff had witnessed patients going into cardiac arrest while forced to lay in corridors due to a lack of beds, saying this is part of a “corridor care crisis” in hospitals across the UK.
Its survey of NHS staff included testimony from more than 5,000 nurses in the UK, with 500 of them in Scotland.
Swinney said the pressure on the health service had grown as a result of the “enormity of the increase in flu cases” Scotland has seen in recent weeks, with hospital admissions for the virus reaching record levels at the end of December 2024.
The First Minister explained flu cases are now falling and a review call he chaired on Wednesday night pointed to a “significant improvement in the delivery of health care in emergency situations as a consequence of the reduction in flu cases”.
He added his Government was “focusing, within the resources available to us, on maximising the effectiveness of patient care on individuals”.
And he said the SNP had increased NHS staffing levels, consultant numbers and the capacity of the NHS 24 helpline.
Swinney continued: “The Government is prioritising the National Health Service by ensuring that we’re investing the largest sum of money ever in the National Health Service.”
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