SNP has no answers on the crisis in our health service

One in six people across Scotland are currently stuck on an NHS waiting list in pain, while a record number of people are forking out their life savings to pay for private treatment.

But did Neil Gray, the country’s health secretary, have any answers to tackle that crucial issue? Nope. Instead, he decided to use his chance to speak at conference to again pontificate about independence and attempt to shift blame rather than taking any responsibility.

This is tiring and Scots deserve better.

At a fringe meeting at the conference venue in Aberdeen, furious doctors and nurses confronted Gray about NHS failings, including faulty equipment, staff burnout and wait times.

Dr Mairi Stark, from the Royal College of Paediatricians and Child health, told him: ‘We are not investing enough in child health in this country.”

Colin Poolman, director for the Royal College of Nursing, said: ‘Our members are experiencing what we would describe as an ongoing crisis.’

Dr Marion Slater, co-dean of training at the Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh, also warned of ‘significant issues with our IT infrastructure’.

Instead of indulging in gesture politics in front of party members, Gray should have the humility to admit where the government has got it wrong and set out a proper plan on how to fix the problems.

The reality is that John Swinney and the SNP have no meaningful plan, no strategy, and no ideas to save our NHS. And thousands of people across our country are having to suffer because of their rank incompetence.

Take Eileen Kelly, an 80-year-old woman who spent more than £10,000 on private treatment for her painful osteoarthritis to avoid a wait of two and a half years on the NHS. Or Brooke Paterson, a 19-year-old footballer who was forced to spend five hours on the pitch waiting for an ambulance after breaking her leg during a match. These are just two heartbreaking tales, but there are many, many more involving families right across Scotland.

Since the election, the UK Labour government has delivered a £5.2 billion boost for Holyrood, but with so little improvement for patients, it isn’t clear what the SNP has done with this money.

They have completely squandered the opportunity to use this funding to rebuild our NHS and give Scots the health service they deserve. After 18 years in charge, the SNP have overseen the creation of a two-tier health system with Scotland’s NHS no longer free and available at the point of need for ordinary Scots.

Our NHS urgently needs a change in direction and a change in government.

A Scottish Labour government will change the way health boards are funded, so that money follows the patients.

We would make use of capacity, creating national waiting lists for elective care and diagnostic tests. And we will declare a national waiting times emergency – to ensure people like Eileen and Brooke are not continually let down by a government with its eye off the ball.