Health secretary is ‘open’ to idea of national conversation about NHS
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An Inverness GP believes he had a very positive meeting with Scotland’s health secretary about what the doctor suggests is the NHS crisis.
Dr Iain Kennedy, of Riverside Highland Medical Centre and chairman of BMA Scotland the doctor’s union, wants a national conversation on the ‘broken’ NHS and had a chance to express his views to Humza Yousaf after wring to him last month.
Dr Kennedy said: “I was pleased that Mr Yousaf was receptive and open to the idea of the Scottish Government commissioning a national conversation on the future of the NHS in Scotland.
“BMA Scotland has been clear that we can’t keep lurching from one crisis to the next, now is the time to reflect on what we are asking our NHS to provide, to take a long-term approach and ensure that our health service is sustainable and free at the point of need for the years to come.
“Humza Yousaf has assured me that he and the government will look into the possibility of holding an open and honest national conversation, and I look forward to him coming back to me in short order, hopefully with a commitment and for further discussions.”
Earlier this month, Dr Kennedy said he had received messages from more than 200 doctors telling him that the whole health and social care system in Scotland is “broken”. “They are telling me the NHS is failing their patients and the workforce and they are suffering from moral injury from having to continually apologise to their patients,” he said.
And while the government blames the pandemic, Brexit staff shortages and winter, he said: “The BMA does not think this is the case any more and anyone working in the NHS knows this is not the case. We knew things were really bad before the pandemic.
“The government may have a head count that says the number of doctors is up but it has not kept pace with a rising population.
“We know in general practice that the whole-time equivalent has flat-lined as the number of patients has risen hugely and patients have more complex problems than ever before.”
Dr Kennedy put the cause down to an ‘abject failure of workforce planning’. He said: “We simply have not recruited the number of staff we need. What doctors and healthcare workers are seeing is less people around them. They are working harder and they are exhausted, burnt out and broken, and there is more sickness absence developing as well. So it really is a grim situation and that is why I am calling for a national conversation.”
