On Tuesday, we learned that almost 34,000 Scots have been waiting more than a year for treatment on the NHS.
On John Swinney’s watch, Scotland’s health service is on its knees and a terrifying number of patients are being made to suffer in agony.
The First Minister should hang his head in shame at this latest SNP broken promise.
He pledged to eradicate waits of more than 12 months by the end of March – and he’s abjectly failed to do so. There’s no excuse for his newest missed target.
The last UK Conservative government had effectively eliminated year-plus waits in England when it left office two years ago. So why are so many Scots enduring intolerable pain – and in some cases dying – while they wait for treatment?
Two decades of SNP mismanagement have led us here – and one of the groups that suffers most is the elderly.
Older patients, who have paid into the system for years, are being badly let down when they need the health system most, forcing many to raid their life savings for expensive private treatment.
When it comes to hip and knee replacements, some Scots have been waiting for half a decade.
Scotland's hospitals are blighted by spiraling waiting times
Dr Sandesh Gulhane says that growing waiting lists are driving patients to seek out private health providers
Once patient in Tayside waited 2,049 days for a hip replacement, and in 2024-5 the median wait for hip or knee replacements in five out of Scotland’s 14 health boards was more than a year.
This damning indictment of Swinney’s government explains the 55 per cent rise in private admissions since 2019-20.
Many elderly patients have had to use their retirement nest egg to end their suffering. And they’re the lucky ones. Those who can’t afford to go private have to suffer for months, or years, in crippling pain.
We’ve had a series of failed SNP health secretaries and failed recovery plans for the NHS. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The Scottish Conservatives have practical, costed plans to get waiting lists down and improve healthcare for older patients. For knee and hip operations, we would buy capacity available within the NHS in England and Northern Ireland, as well as in the private sector.
When the resources and staff are available elsewhere, Scottish patients should not be denied access to treatment because of the SNP’s workforce planning failures.
There are other, wider policies that have a significant impact on health. We would restore the Cold Weather Payment to help pensioners keep the heating on during the toughest winter weeks.
These are straightforward policies that would make a real difference.
They deal with issues that should have been priorities for the SNP. But they have consistently neglected our NHS, choosing instead to focus on their relentless obsession with breaking up the UK.
If the Nationalists win a majority on May 7, then our health service will only get worse. The best way to prevent that disastrous outcome is to vote for the Scottish Conservatives on your peach ballot.