After Labour hands over NHS windfall, we should all fear SNP financial incompetence

The spotlight is on the SNP this week as they set out how they plan to spend the record settlement UK Labour delivered in its recent Budget. The SNP complain about not having enough powers, but health is fully devolved and any government that controls the health budget wields the power of life and death.

The Scottish Budget is a chance for the SNP to change direction after years of stagnation, infighting and decay. But will they? John Swinney claims he’ll put the NHS at the heart of the Budget.

Perhaps he has finally heard Scottish Labour’s call to spend every penny of the additional £789 million of health and social care money this year and an additional £1.72 billion in 2025-26. We know that the SNP have previously failed to do this, weakening the NHS.

Being honest about NHS

Two damning reports in quick succession show that you need competence as well as money to deliver for Scots. The Institute for Fiscal Studies recently reported that although proportionally Scotland has spent more, in the last year hospital activity has slipped below that in England.

They noted the “UK Government has been honest about the poor performance of the English NHS” and warned “it is vital the Scottish Government does the same”. The new Audit Scotland report on the NHS was damning, citing the SNP’s lack of vision and delivery.

The NHS is struggling. Can the SNP be trusted to use extra money as a result of Labour's UK Budget to tackle its many problems? (Picture: Christopher Furlong) | Getty Images

It said that while healthcare staff numbers have risen in the past five years, the NHS is missing most waiting-list targets. More staff are also going off sick – like the NHS dental nurse Scottish Labour highlighted, who was forced to quit after waiting years for prolapse and hip surgery.

The report also revealed that £357.5m has been spent on agency staff – a rise of 45.7 per cent – over the past five years. A recent investigation revealed that NHS Western Isles had spent more than £1m a year employing two locum psychiatrists alone.

National Care Service tragedy

The SNP’s ability to spend money without results is underlined by the tragedy of the National Care Service. Rather than tackling record delayed discharge levels and the social care crisis, the SNP spent £30m on plans to create a quango that did not pay for a single extra carer.

The reality is that John Swinney is no agent of change but the embodiment of the status quo. For the past 17 years, whether as Finance Secretary, Deputy First Minister, or First Minister, he has been at the heart of the SNP’s decisions on the NHS. He’s no innocent bystander.

Ultimately, the only way to deliver change is through reform and investment. In England, this process has already started with Health Secretary Wes Streeting declaring that NHS England is broken and getting on with plans to deliver change.

In Scotland, we need to reform the NHS for the future. We need to tackle delayed discharge, which is leaving thousands of patients in limbo and thousands more waiting for hours in corridors. We need a National Care Service worthy of the name, built on the expertise of those delivering frontline care.

Right now, though, it’s the SNP that control the NHS’s purse strings. They have the power and Labour have given them the resources, the pressure is on for the SNP to deliver.

Jackie Baillie MSP is Scottish Labour’s health spokesperson