UNISON Scotland welcomes Audit Scotland report: ‘NHS struggling to keep up with rising demand and cost pressures’ released on 17 October 2016, calling on all sides of the debate to take specific measures to tackle the problems identified within it.
Matt McLaughlin, UNISON health regional organiser said, “There are positives in this report such as improvements on patient safety and reduced waiting time for hospital treatment. Its important that our politicians and the public recognise them in the context of the significant financial and structural pressure that our NHS is under.”
UNISON welcomes the recommendation that there is a need for a ‘clear and detailed plan’ which “sets out what he future of the NHS looks like”. Matt McLaughlin said, “The openness and candour of this report is welcome, the NHS is a very complex operation which saves lives and it can’t simply shut hospital beds in the hope that community services will pick them up. We need a period of significant and planned investment in both parts of the health service to ensure that as we make transitions into community care and intervention, we ensure that the safety net is firmly in place.”
UNISON called for calmness and reasoned discussion in the debate, Matt said “The NHS has been consistently used as a political football over the years and no political party is above reproach. This report recognises the complexity of the challenge and it is time that the politicians sat down together, with unions and communities to draw up a consensus for the future of our NHS.”
ends
See also:
Audit Scotland report NHS 2016 27 Oct 2016
http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/uploads/docs/report/2016/nr_161027_nhs_overview.pdf
UNISON Scotland e-briefing on Audit Scotland report 27 Oct 2016
https://unison-scotland.org/e-briefing-nhs-scotland-2016-audit-scotland-overview/