Responding to the programme for government outlined by the Scottish First Minister today (Tuesday), UNISON Scottish Secretary Lilian Macer said: “You cannot just restructure your way out of a public service crisis.
“The Scottish government must build the capacity of public services, not spend millions reorganising them.
“Previous overhauls have shown this rarely delivers the long-term savings promised. They’re loaded with upfront costs, cause years of disruption and are a distraction from making desperately needed improvements to our services.
“The real issues facing public services are the Scottish government’s cuts to budgets and jobs. It is predicted that 20,000 jobs will be cut across public services and millions slashed from budgets.
“Scotland’s NHS has the longest waiting lists since devolution, thousands of nursing posts remain vacant and social care is in crisis. At the same time, councils are being warned they could become financially unsustainable.
“Changes to NHS boundaries won’t lead to a single extra nurse, care worker or paramedic nor any new care packages or hospital beds.
“Real investment is needed to make those services better. That means more staff, shorter waiting times and increased capacity to meet the population’s changing needs.
“Bringing social care into the NHS will only work if there is proper engagement with trade unions and the workforce, and we must be clear that care must be driven by need, not profit.
“Merging public services and reducing NHS boards will take decisions further away from the patients, staff and communities who best understand local needs. It must only ever happen if there’s a clear, lasting benefit to services.
“Ministers should be honest about what this is really about. If the objective is to save money, they should say so. But they mustn’t do it under the guise of reform.”
Notes to editors:
– Lilian Macer will be giving evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s health, social care and sport committee tomorrow (Wednesday) at 10am.
– Lilian Macer is available for interview
– UNISON is Scotland’s largest union, with more than 150,000 members providing public services in education, local government, the NHS, social care, police services, water, and energy. They are employed in the public, voluntary and private sectors.