Chairman of BMA Scotland calls for national conversation on 'broken' NHS
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THE Highland GP who chairs BMA Scotland the doctor's union, says his members fear the NHS is broken.
Dr Iain Kennedy who is an executive partner in the Riverside Highland Medical Group told Radio Scotland that things have never been so bad in his 30 years working in the NHS
He said: "At this time of year I would be wanting to give a message of hope and optimism but I can't. I have been working in the NHS for 30 years and it has never been this bad.
"In terms of vacancies we know there are GP practices falling over up and down the land, and we are well off the 800 GPs the government has targeted to recruit by 20027.
"In terms of hospital doctors we know vacancies are greater than 14 per cent whereas the government is saying it is only 6 per cent. That's how bad things are."
And he has heard shock reports from the sharp end of the NHS
"Over just two weeks I have received messages from more than 200 doctors telling me that the whole health and social care system in Scotland is broken," he said.
"They are telling me the NHS is failing their patients and the workforce and they are suffering from moral injury from having to continually apologise to their patients."
And while the government blames the pandemic, Brexit staff shortages and even winter, he said: "The BMA does not think this is the case any more and anyone working in the NHS knows this is not the case.
"We knew things were really bad before the pandemic.
"The Government may have a head count that says the number of doctors is up, but it has not kept pace with a rising population.
"We know in general practice that the whole time equivalent has flat-lined as the number of patients has risen hugely and patients have more complex problems than ever before."
Dr Kennedy put the cause down to an "abject failure of workforce planning."
He said: "We simply have not recruited the number of staff we need.
"What doctors and health care workers are seeing is less people around them. They are working harder and they are exhausted, burnt out and broken, and there is more sickness absense developing as well.
"So it really is a grim situation and that is why I am calling for a national conversation on the future of the NHS in Scotland."
Dr Kennedy said he wrote recently to Scottish health secretary Humza Yousaf about this national conversation and they are to meet on January 11 to discuss a way forward.
Dr Kennedy told the BBC: "Yes funding is important and we need to ask the public in Scotland how they want to fund the NHS and gather the resources and how we spend those resources wisely; how the patients and public want those resources to be spent.
He said the BMA Scotland was against a two-tier system where the better off paid more for the NHS. "What we really need to do is move towards a service that is free at the point of need," he said.
Dr Kennedy said: "What I am saying and my colleagues at the BMA are saying is that the public and stakeholders need to get together and get away from their political differences. We have got to depoliticise this national conversation and let the public and their stakeholders decide for themselves what services need to be provided."
He agreed there is no way the NHS in Scotland would survive in its present form.
And he added: "Many of my members are telling me it has already died, that it is already broken in some parts of the country. We need to have this national conversation now, it cannot be delayed any further."
Junior hospital doctors in Scotland are already preparing for industrial action in the spring.
These medics are among the busiest in the NHS but many are on £14 per hour, or £27,500 per year and had seen their income "eroded by 23 per cent since 2008."
A Scottish government spokeswoman said: “The situation we find ourselves in is the result of pandemic backlogs, Brexit-related staff shortages and increases in winter viruses such as flu, which has seen recent a significant rise in the last few weeks – making this winter the most challenging the NHS has ever faced.
“We know the difficulties staff are facing and want to repeat our thanks to all those working across all health and social care services this winter to make sure people receive the care they need.”
The Scottish government said Scotland had record numbers of NHS staff and more were being recruited as part of a £600 million winter resilience plan.
