How the SNP has left our struggling NHS unprepared for another pandemic

Five years after the first Covid lockdown, the NHS is struggling to cope with ordinary winter pressures. What if another pandemic hit?

Five years ago, on March 23, 2020, Scotland went into lockdown. While some will remember the silent skies and shuttered shops, others remain haunted by the loved ones they couldn’t say goodbye to.

Asked to reflect on BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show this weekend, Jeane Freeman, who was the SNP Health Secretary at the time, defended the Scottish Government’s record. The ongoing Covid inquiries may in time provide other conclusions.

But one thing that is already clear is that the SNP has taken its eye off the ball when it comes to the NHS. A recovery plan was announced in 2021, and by March 2022 the lockdown was all but over, yet today the NHS is limping from one crisis to the next.

Normally busy streets were virtually empty of people during the first Covid lockdown five years ago (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell) | Getty Images

Operating theatres strangely quiet

Tellingly, when Freeman was asked how the NHS would cope with another pandemic, she admitted it “could do better” if there was a “national booking service” for elective surgery.

Freeman was hinting at a paradox – that while nearly one in six Scots are on an NHS waiting list and queues mount at the doors of A&E, the operating theatres are strangely quiet. Take NHS Golden Jubilee, operating as the National Waiting List Centre, which was specifically designed to relieve pressure on waiting lists.

A freedom of information (FOI) request submitted by Scottish Labour found that in 2023/24 more than 7,508 hours were “lost” due to under-running theatre sessions. Meanwhile, 2,861 theatre sessions were unfilled while a further 640 were cancelled. This is part of a wider trend of dysfunction under the SNP.

A previous FOI request by my party revealed that, despite the large number of Scots on waiting lists, the number of patients referred to the Golden Jubilee for general surgery was 43 per cent lower in September 2024 compared to the same month in 2023.

Health boards are free to refer patients to the Golden Jubilee hospital but beyond a certain quota must fund the surgery out of their own resources. It is clear that some of them are not sending their waiting list patients to the flagship hospital. Rather than this being about the interests of patients, this is all about not wanting to share resources.

A patient-first approach

The scale of the crisis in the NHS can sometimes feel overwhelming, but the empty theatres are a reminder of what we can fix. Scottish Labour has proposed a patient-first approach to our NHS where money follows the patient rather than being stockpiled by health boards.

We would also use all available operating capacity so that patients are not forced to spend years in pain because they can’t get a hip operation. And we would restore the family doctor so more patients access preventative care and don’t have to turn up at hospital in the first place.

This winter, a flu outbreak threatened to overwhelm hospitals with Public Health Scotland warning that it was “contributing to acute pressure on the health and care system".

Five years on, the question remains: if our NHS is struggling to deal with ordinary winter pressures, how will it cope with another pandemic? It’s time for a new direction.

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