Shocking difference between NHS in 2007 and now reveals effect of 18 years of SNP government

This week, John Swinney tried to position himself as the saviour of Scotland’s NHS, claiming the only thing standing in his way was the opposition. But the main thing in the way is the First Minister himself because, for almost 18 years, he has been at the heart of the SNP project.

In 2007, when the SNP first came to power, Swinney’s party pledged to support our NHS, treat patients faster and tackle health inequalities. Of course, they were right to be ambitious.

That year, the SNP inherited an NHS which was in robust health, with almost all A&E patients seen within four hours. Now, a third of patients wait longer than that, and one in ten wait over half a day.

John Swinney, seen on a visit to St John's Hospital in Livingston, is an obstacle to fixing the NHS's problems (Picture: Jane Barlow/pool) | Getty Images

Bottom of life-expectancy league table

Back in 2007, waiting times were falling and were measured in weeks – not months or years. Now nearly one-in-six Scots are on an NHS waiting list, with many so desperate to escape the pain that they are raiding their savings or remortgaging their homes to pay for private operations.

The principle of an NHS free at the point of need for all has been abandoned. And Scotland is at the bottom of Western Europe’s life-expectancy league table. Rather than delivering on its original pledges, the SNP has spent the last two decades creating a labyrinth of quangos while failing to actually improve the services that Scots use.

Between 1999 and today, the number of staff in public bodies and corporations has more than doubled to 32,100, with £6.6 billion spent on these bodies every year.

An investigation by this newspaper found that the network of public bodies across Scotland’s NHS is spending nearly £14 million a year on external consultants.

Too much bureaucracy

Cost is not the only issue. There are currently a staggering 56 bodies governing Scotland’s convoluted health and social care landscape. Too often, Scotland’s 14 NHS territorial health boards seem to get in the way of patient treatment, rather than facilitating it.

Scottish Labour would reduce the number of boards and deliver a service that starts with the needs of patients. Ending quango culture is also about accountability.

In short, we need a change from the SNP’s legacy, where the people pay more and get less to serve the ever-expanding machinery of government. The ever-growing number of public bodies diverts resources and time away from where it’s needed, while providing an incompetent government with the smokescreen it needs to hide its failure.

In the SNP’s world, there is always someone else to blame. While the SNP has hidden behind layers of middle-management, Scottish Labour would ensure ministers are held accountable for the services their department provides.

The responsibility to deliver a functioning NHS would lie with me, not the anonymous spokesperson of an organisation with a jargon-filled name no one understands.

Over the next few weeks, Swinney will no doubt claim again and again that he will save the NHS and the opposition will wreck it. The fact is, after almost 18 years, both the SNP and Swinney have failed the NHS – both staff and patients.

He seems incapable of taking any decisions to reform and fix our precious NHS. Any effective diagnosis of our NHS’s problems must start with the removal of the SNP.

Jackie Baillie MSP is Scottish Labour’s health spokesperson