Warning signs of NHS crisis cannot be ignored in 2021, says BMA Scotland chair

Warning signs the NHS is in urgent need of more funding cannot be ignored in 2021, the chair of the British Medical Association in Scotland has said.

In his annual festive message, Dr Lewis Morrison said the year ahead presented an opportunity to repair some of the long-standing issues faced by the health service that “cannot be missed”.

There can be no going back to the pre-pandemic NHS, which was under “unrelenting” pressure, understaffed and under-resourced, Dr Morrison said, adding the system “simply isn’t funded enough” to maintain the level of service of recent years.

The warning comes as BMA Scotland released results of a survey of 900 of its members, revealing that almost two thirds (61 per cent) believe the NHS is funded well below what is required.

An emergency department nurse. Picture: PA

Some 92 per cent said the NHS cannot continue to provide the same level of service without additional funding, and more than a third said staffing levels where they work had deteriorated in the past five years.

Dr Morrison said: “I want to look forward to next year and the pressing need to fix the undoubted problems we had in healthcare before the pandemic, but which the pandemic has exposed so very clearly.

“Given the developments before Christmas that have rightly prompted tough restrictions for January – the first part of the year will likely remain very difficult, for the country and our NHS. Simply getting through will be hard enough.

“But looking at the year as a whole, we can ignore the warning lights about the state of our health service no longer.

"Next year there is a real opportunity for change that cannot be missed.

“As we roll out a complete Covid vaccination programme and life starts getting back to normal, there can be no going back to what was normal in the NHS.

"Because that normal was a normal of understaffing, under-resourcing and unrelenting pressure.

"Our national debate will focus on the Scottish Parliament elections in May and whatever the outcome the message to all political parties must be that healthcare deserves better than ‘more of the same’.

“The early results from our survey tell us doctors are working in a system which simply isn’t funded sufficiently to even keep doing what it does at the moment.”

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard urged the Scottish Government to “listen to this significant intervention from BMA Scotland”.

He said: “More than a decade of under-funding and under-resourcing from the SNP left Scotland’s National Health Service unprepared to tackle Covid-19, and ministers will have to account for this in the forthcoming public inquiry.

“But as this survey makes clear, NHS Scotland needs more funding now even to maintain its current services.

“SNP promises of ‘jam tomorrow’ ahead of the Scottish Parliament elections won’t cut it.

"This NHS funding crisis has happened on the SNP’s watch and we need the change of course that BMA Scotland and other professional associations and trade unions are calling for.”

Dr Morrison outlined key priorities for change, including staff recruitment and retention, and workplace culture issues including bullying.

These problems are fundamental to resolving the healthcare backlog caused by the pandemic, he said.

He added: “In 2021 let’s not pretend anymore that the NHS can go on achieving everything we currently ask of it with current funding and staffing.

"It’s not good enough to fudge or argue over vacancy levels and it’s time for a clear and unambiguous plan to fix recruitment and retention issues, not just publish a plan to have a plan as has been the Government approach so far.

“The target driven culture many of us work in can create inappropriate behaviours – by which I mean bullying – and a blame culture which does little to improve patient care. This has to change.

“The backlog of healthcare delayed by the pandemic, and all the new healthcare needs that will arise as a matter of course, cannot be dealt with if we do not fix these issues.”

Scottish Liberal Democrats spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton called Dr Morrison’s words a “stark warning”.

"The Scottish NHS was missing its waiting targets before the pandemic,” he said.

"It will take huge effort and dedication from staff to turn this around and catch up. Scottish ministers needs to commit to find the money needed to make this happen.”

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