'The indignity of corridor care': How Scotland's NHS 'perma-crisis' must be fixed to avoid worst winter yet

There is a “greater risk than ever” that NHS services in Scotland will struggle to cope this winter, ministers have been warned.

Dr Iain Kennedy, chair of the doctors’ union BMA Scotland, sounded the alarm as the Scottish Government prepared to publish its winter preparedness plan.

He said the NHS in Scotland is now in a state of “perma-crisis”.

The Scottish Government will outline its winter plan for the NHS | Peter Byrne/PA Wire

Meanwhile, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) urged ministers to tackle the “indignity” of NHS patients being treated in hospital corridors. It said care is being “compromised daily”.

Dr Kennedy said: “Every winter brings its challenges which are often difficult to predict and lead to increased demand from patients, such as higher incidences of seasonal illnesses like flu and noroviruses and the impact of bad weather.

“However with the NHS in Scotland now in a state of ‘perma-crisis’ and facing the demands of winter pressures all year round, there is a greater risk than ever that services will struggle to cope in what has always been the most difficult time of year.

“With GPs already struggling to meet demand, dangerously long waits in A&E and a medical workforce crisis, it’s easy to see how any additional pressures will risk pushing services into yet another exceptionally difficult winter period.

“We hope the Scottish Government will recognise this when it outlines how it intends to prepare health and social care services for winter and look forward to hearing the details of the plans.

“However, when it comes to a long-term sustainable future for the NHS, we cannot just keep relying on merely tinkering around the edges. We need real understanding and proper investment – including in the medical workforce – to improve the current situation that NHS Scotland is in.”

SNP health secretary Neil Gray will set out the Scottish Government’s winter preparedness plan in Holyrood on Tuesday afternoon.

Colin Poolman, director RCN Scotland, said: “Our members have expressed the impact of overcrowding on their patients and on their own wellbeing. There has been no let-up in the pressures staff have faced over summer, and patient care is being compromised daily.

“No patient deserves the indignity of corridor care. The Scottish Government must set out a plan that addresses the continued nursing workforce shortages across the NHS and social care and that requires the mandatory reporting of care in inappropriate areas to understand the scale of the pressures and how to best target resources to improve the safety and quality of care.”

He added: "Good care costs but missed care costs more. The Scottish government must invest to get our health and social care system through this winter safely.”

RCN Scotland said hospitals continued to experience overcrowding throughout the summer, with A&E waiting times in July at record levels.

James O’Connell, of the Unite trade union, called on ministers to target resources at frontline and emergency services.

He said: “Measures need to be taken to expand acute patient capacity in hospitals and to reduce hospital transfer times at accident and emergency wards. This is where there is an acute bottleneck of pressure placed on our health services in the period of greatest strain.

“Unite’s fear is that there is minimal joined up policy and minimal investment to help our NHS and emergency services workers which will inevitably lead to the system breaking.”

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane, who is also a practicing GP, said: “Seventeen years of SNP mismanagement has left our NHS in permanent crisis mode, with waiting times worsening throughout the summer.

“The appalling combination of the SNP’s dreadful workforce planning and Humza Yousaf’s flimsy recovery plan mean that it is now well over four years since they met their own waiting time target – which means that patients and staff could face a catastrophic winter.

“Unless Neil Gray takes action now, our NHS will face a winter collapse.”