NHS 75th anniversary: It's time to start restoring our most precious national asset to good health – Jackie Baillie

The Conservatives have never really cared about the NHS, while the SNP just continue to obsess about independence, says Jackie Baillie

Dear NHS nurses and doctors, radiographers, drivers and cleaners, a happy birthday to you all. From the bottom of our broken ankles, bypassed hearts, fading stitches and daily prescriptions, thank you for 75 years of keeping us alive.

The deep love we have for our health service is one of the most tremendous aspects of living in Britain. The knowledge that if you ever get ill or have an accident, you’ll get the care you need, whatever your circumstances, is one of Labour’s greatest achievements.

Labour’s mission, 75 years ago and now, is to provide healthcare for everyone in need free at the point of use. Nye Bevan, the Labour Health Secretary who created the NHS, put it best: “Illness is neither an indulgence for which people have to pay; nor an offence for which they should be penalised.”

Not every country has a system like ours and the fear of living without it is a huge burden. Our NHS is an immense privilege. But the post-war Labour government’s legacy is under threat.

Under the Tories and SNP, our NHS has reached crisis point. The pandemic showed the value of the health service’s heroic staff. People we relied on are now being failed and were being failed for years before by Conservatives who never really cared for the NHS. It was an act of cynicism by the SNP to pretend voting for independence in 2014 was the only way to save the NHS. It is under this nationalist government that the service is facing the greatest-ever crisis.

When Humza Yousaf and Nicola Sturgeon served as Health Secretary, they should have been focusing on tackling waiting times. Instead they obsessed about independence. When this government should have been delivering fair pay for NHS workers, they blew £8.5m on health board spin doctors. When health boards should have been tackling waiting lists, they spent money spying on patients, bereaved families and politicians who campaigned for transparency.

Cancer waiting times are out of control. One in seven Scots are on NHS waiting lists. Some patients are simply not getting the treatment they need. A&E is in perpetual crisis. The situation is so bad that junior doctors are considering industrial action for the fair pay they deserve while others are voting with their feet and moving abroad.

I’m not saying that voting Labour will fix the NHS’s deep problems with the wave of a wand but its very existence is on the line, and the Tories and the SNP are not interested. Labour made the NHS, has faith in the NHS and will fight for the NHS.

It’s not enough to save the service, we will have to fix the fundamentals and make it fit for the future. That means more than money, it means a heath service where prevention comes first, where care is closer to home, where patients have more control.

It means tackling inequality at its root so we make the country fairer and healthier. It means cutting heart disease, preventing cancer, acknowledging the mental health crisis and the devastating impact of suicides.

That is not the work of one day or even one administration. But rest assured, Mr Bevan, it is this Labour generation’s mission to renew our most precious national asset.

Jackie Baillie MSP is Scottish Labour’s health spokesperson