HUMZA Yousaf has been branded “the worst health secretary since devolution” after presiding over unprecedented A&E waits and record vacancies of critical NHS staff.
In a Labour debate at Holyrood, Mr Yousaf was compared unfavourably to his four SNP predecessors, and told he should quit if he couldn’t turn the health service around.
Listing a series of grim health statistics, Scottish Labour deputy Jackie Baillie said the NHS was “on the brink of a humanitarian crisis” despite heroic work by its staff.
She said Mr Yousaf’s “pathetic” winter resilience plan contained “not a single penny extra”, merely “repackaged, reheated and recycled” spending figures, some 11 months old.
She told MSPs: “I have been in parliament for 23 years, and I can say without fear of contradiction that Humza Yousaf is absolutely the worst health secretary since devolution.
“Let's prove this. Let's look at his predecessors.
“Nicola Sturgeon - 95.9% of people seen within four hours at A&E in October 2011.
“Alex Neil 93.9% in October 2013. Shona Robison 91% in October 2015. Jeane Freeman 89.6% in October 2020.
“Let me remind you, that's eight months into the same pandemic that this health secretary blames all his failings on.
“And our missing-in-action Health Secretary presides over record lows of 64% [of patients seen within the four-hour target for A&E].”
Ms Baillie also raised recent record numbers of people waiting more than eight and 12 hours in A&E, which she said could be responsible for 37 avoidable deaths in a week.
“Patients waiting on trolleys getting intravenous drugs administered in corridors, which is not safe, sleeping in chairs overnight. This is the new normal in accident and emergency.”
She concluded: “Our NHS is on its knees. The Health Secretary has a choice, because doing nothing is not a choice. He needs to stop people needlessly dying this winter.
“So his choice is: set out a clear plan to end waiting times of more than eight hours, because this is about saving lives. And if he can't do that, frankly, he must resign.”
Tory MSP Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: “People are dying. People are dying avoidable deaths and it’s going to get worse over the winter.
“Across the country, the Scottish Government continues to fail our Scottish National Health Service and fail our patients.
“And to be clear, this is not the fault of our hard working clinical and support staff who have and always will go beyond the call of duty.
“But these heroes really are at breaking point and the Cabinet Secretary should know this.”
Mr Yousaf said nobody in the Scottish Government would deny the NHS was “under significant pressure”, but said it was ridiculous that Labour’s motion didn’t mention Covid.
He told MSPs: “For Labour to bring forward a motion about NHS pressures and not to include one single word, not a solitary mention about Covid and the pandemic, demonstrates just how it is Jackie Baillie and her party who have their fingers in their ears, and not this government.
“The pandemic is the biggest shock our NHS has ever faced in its 74 year existence.
“I have no doubt that of course the NHS had challenges pre-pandemic, but for Labour not to recognise that Covid has been the biggest shock they have faced is frankly burying the head in the sand.
“The NHS will not recover in weeks, as Jackie Baillie is demanding, or even months. It will take years. That's why the £1billion recovery plan is predicated on five years of substantial investment and reform. I am certainly committed to that recovery.”
MSPs voted 62 to 51 for an amendment to Labour’s motion, which erased it and substituted a new text about Covid and Scottish Government spending on the NHS and staff pay.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel