Swinney challenged to ‘tell the truth’ on when new NHS centres will open
John Swinney has been challenged to “tell the truth to the thousands of Scottish patients who are waiting in agony” and set out when national treatment centres planned by the Scottish Government are to open.
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay made the call as he insisted the SNP needs to “stop chasing headlines and start doing some hard work” on the NHS.
The First Minister, who made a major speech earlier this week on the health service, vowed to “deliver the national treatment centres” – but failed to say when.
The Government originally set out plans for a network of such centres in 2015, but Mr Findlay told MSPs that units in Livingston, Ayrshire, Perth, Lanarkshire, Edinburgh and Aberdeen have not yet opened.
Pressing Mr Swinney during First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood, the Tory leader said: “Can he please tell the truth to the thousands of Scottish patients who are waiting in agony, when will these actually open?”
He also accused the Scottish Government of failing to deliver an app for patients, saying SNP ministers have “kept Scotland’s NHS trapped in the analogue age”
Mr Findlay said patients in England were given access to such a system six years ago, allowing them to “make appointments, order prescriptions, view medical records, and more”.
He said the SNP had announced plans for an app in 2021, but this has not been delivered, and he accused the First Minister of having the “audacity” to announce it again.
Mr Findlay said: “In a classic case of Government by press release, all that matters to John Swinney is an easy headline, with no interest in the difficult job of delivery.”
Mr Swinney however said the Budget for 2025-26 delivers record funding for the NHS, as he warned “years of austerity” resulting from the “economic and fiscal incompetence” of the Tories at Westminster had seen spending on capital projects “slashed”.
The First Minister said he is “now going to deliver the national treatment centres”, as he went on to attack the Tories for their opposition to the Scottish Budget.
He said: “The Conservatives are going to vote against a record funding settlement for the health service.
“That tells us all we need to know, that for all this posturing from the Conservatives, they don’t care about the National Health Service.”
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar also challenged the First Minister on the NHS, saying organisations such as the British Medical Association had claimed Monday’s speech lacked detail.
Mr Sarwar said Scotland had had “five NHS recovery plans in less than four years” under the Scottish Government.
Claiming the SNP has a “record of failure”, the Labour leader insisted Scotland needs a government that “will do whatever it takes to clear the NHS backlogs”.
Mr Swinney however disputed the suggestion that things are getting worse in the NHS, telling MSPs: “A&E waiting times – four-hour performance has increased week-on-week since the week ending December 22.”
With Labour to abstain in the Budget vote next month, the First Minister said the party’s MSPs are “not going to lift a finger to support and endorse” the NHS investment contained within it.
Hitting back at Mr Sarwar, the SNP leader added: “The Labour Party in Scotland, they should be ashamed of themselves.”
