15 Sep 2019
The SNP’s “blame game” on the NHS will be attacked in Holyrood this week, following more revelations about Scotland’s ailing health service.
The Scottish Conservatives will use their party business on Wednesday to highlight a series of examples from across the country where SNP ministers have abandoned responsibility and instead hung health boards out to dry.
Last week, health secretary Jeane Freeman shirked accountability for the Sick Kids fiasco in Edinburgh, insisting the decade-long saga was the fault of NHS Lothian chiefs.
The nationalist government has also been quick to blame the NHS in Glasgow and private companies for the farce surrounding the £800 million Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
And over the weekend, spiralling costs at a new hospital and cancer centre in Aberdeen were also revealed, something ministers in Edinburgh have refused to take ownership of.
That follows a bullying crisis at NHS Highland, major governance problems in NHS Tayside and financial meltdowns at other health boards including NHS Ayrshire and Arran.
Shadow health secretary Miles Briggs said, after more than 12 years in charge of Scotland’s NHS, it was time for the SNP to take direct responsibility for these issues.
Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Miles Briggs said:
“At least half of Scotland’s mainland health boards have suffered major problems in recent years, yet the SNP government takes no responsibility whatsoever. The nationalists only want to play a blame game.
“We’ve got major construction issues in Lothian, Glasgow and Grampian.
“That’s on top of governance chaos in Tayside, a bullying crisis in the Highlands and financial fiascos in Ayrshire and Arran.
“The SNP has had complete control over health for more than 12 years in Scotland.
“This can’t all just be the fault of individual health boards – it all comes home to this nationalist administration.
“And that’s what happens when you have a Scottish Government which instead of focusing on things that matter, has instead prioritised Scottish independence.
“It is long past time SNP ministers got a grip on the growing problems facing Scotland’s health services.
“As each SNP health secretary comes and goes its clear they have no new ideas or vision for our Scottish NHS. Just bluster, blame and deflection.”
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