Gerard McBride's 76 weeks of pain shows NHS 'isn’t working anymore' under SNP

Scotland is developing a two-tier health system as people who can afford it go private while others suffer in pain on long NHS waiting lists

Gerard McBride was delivering kitchen units in October 2023 when he felt a terrible pain in his left leg, “like cardboard ripping apart”. When he saw his GP, she referred him immediately for X-rays, which revealed he had osteoarthritis and would require both hip and knee surgery.

Gerard, who is 63, has now been waiting for that surgery for more than 76 weeks. A self-described workaholic, he never took a sick day before his injury or anything stronger than Paracetamol.

Now, his pain is so crippling that he has been prescribed morphine – which also means he cannot undergo the routine bowel screening he is due. As he put it: “The NHS isn’t working anymore.”

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Large numbers of people are unable to work while they wait for operations and other medical procedures (Picture: Christopher Furlong) | Getty Images

Borrowing money to fund treatment

The Scots who can afford to are voting with their feet. On Tuesday, the chair of the British Medical Association Scotland, Dr Iain Kennedy, warned there is now a divide in Scotland between those who can afford private healthcare and those languishing on NHS waiting lists.

A BMA Scotland survey found that a third of Scots had either accessed private medical care in the past two years, or reported that a member of their household had. But this is not the latest lifestyle trend.

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Two-thirds of those who reported accessing private care for themselves or a member of their household said it was because the NHS waiting list was too long. Of those that accessed private care, nearly half used personal savings and a fifth said they had to cut back on other activities. One in ten were so desperate they borrowed money to fund their treatment.

On the SNP’s watch, Scotland is developing a two-tier health system before our eyes where anyone who can manage to pay goes private and everyone else suffers in pain. A broken NHS affects us all.

If we don’t have a healthy population who can easily get treatment when they face illness, we will lose teachers, nurses, soldiers, bus drivers – and kitchen fitters.

Forced out of work

One of Gerard’s biggest frustrations is that he had to stop work due to his lengthy wait and is now reliant on family and benefits. He reflects that “if I'd had my surgery last year, I could have been back earning money by now”.

It doesn’t have to be this way. There are operating theatres that could have patients in them, unemployed doctors who could be working in key specialities, and thousands like Gerard who could be paying taxes and working if they just got their operation in time.

And Gerard is not alone. He is joined by tens of thousands of people who cannot work because they are waiting too long for treatment. Economically inactive, but wanting to work, yet let down by the NHS.

John Swinney treats the NHS like a slogan, but Labour has always been clear that access to healthcare should be a right. That is why we will clear the waiting list backlog, invest in GPs, free up hospital beds, come up with a proper workforce plan, and take immediate steps to tackle the social care crisis so that our NHS can start working again to support patients and staff.

Jackie Baillie is MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader and her party’s spokesperson for health