For too many across Tayside and Fife, accessing proper healthcare has become near impossible amid an NHS budgeting crisis.
This week, one NHS Tayside whistleblower revealed how the SNP government’s spending plans could force the health board to consider the future of hospitals like Perth Royal Infirmary.
But that’s far from the first symptom of our struggling NHS.
The Courier has long tracked how our local health boards are performing, and the numbers make for grim reading.
GP appointments are few and far between, A&E departments are increasingly strained and thousands are suffering in pain as they languish on never-ending waiting lists for surgery.
As the latest government budget looks set to force health boards into making tens of millions of pounds in savings, Scotland is at risk of becoming a medical backwater.
Access to decent healthcare will become more and more difficult.
Any decision to reduce or end services at PRI would be hugely unpopular – and only increase pressure on other hospitals in Tayside.
If it does become necessary, the blame will lie with the government – as opposed to the health service managers forced to make the decision.
Increased funding alone will not solve all the problems.
Scotland is suffering what the British Medical Association describe as a “workforce crisis”.
Vacancies for crucial positions go unfilled for years, including in Fife where, for three years, not a single application was received for four GP roles.
So, while the government must urgently look at how it funds the health service, just as important will be deciding how to staff it.
Where necessary, our world-leading universities should be used to train as many new health care professionals as are needed, allowing the next generation of carers to be waiting in the wings.
The UK Government must also allow for more flexibility in recruiting internationally, including reversing the decision to stop social care workers from brining their families to live in the UK.
If immediate changes are not made to the way the health system in this country is funded and future-proofed we run the very real danger of becoming a medical desert.
That is when regions do not have adequate access to health facilities to care for their population.
It would be without question a term fitted to a city like Perth being left without a hospital and the sprawling towns and villages reliant on Ninewells in Dundee.
Our NHS is undergoing death by a thousand cuts – if changes are not made soon there be nowhere left in Tayside or Fife to stitch it back up again.
COURIER OPINION: NHS budget crisis risks the future of our health service
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02.03.2024
For too many across Tayside and Fife, accessing proper healthcare has become near impossible amid an NHS budgeting crisis.
This week, one NHS Tayside whistleblower revealed how the SNP government’s spending plans could force the health board to consider the future of hospitals like Perth Royal Infirmary.
But that’s far from the first symptom of our struggling NHS.
The Courier has long tracked how our local health boards are performing, and the numbers make for grim reading.
GP appointments are few and far between, A&E departments are increasingly strained and thousands are suffering in pain as they languish on........
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