Jackie Baillie MSP The official website of Scottish Labour Deputy Leader, Jackie Baillie MSP.
Commenting on this week’s Public Health Scotland statistics that have shown only 1,076 planned operations were scheduled for June this year compared with 5,870 for June last year in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board, Jackie Baillie MSP for Dumbarton, Vale of Leven and Helensburgh said:
“This massive drop in scheduled operations is alarming and painfully difficult for thousands of local people in West Dunbartonshire and Argyll & Bute.
“SNP Ministers were slow to enter lockdown and slow to equip our NHS with PPE and other vital equipment.
“The uncomfortable truth is that the Scottish Government’s pandemic preparations were inadequate and the NHS has largely locked down, to the detriment of many local patients with other needs.
“Thousands of Scottish patients have had their operations cancelled, chronic pain clinics are closed and people are losing hope. A backlog of delayed surgery is snowballing and new patients fear they’ll wait years to be treated.
“The SNP’s Treatment Time Guarantee wasn’t worth the paper it was written on before Covid-19 hit and the only guarantee patients have now is that it will take a very long time to be seen.
“The Health Secretary must urgently restart NHS services to ensure that local patients in West Dunbartonshire and Argyll & Bute get the treatment they need.”
~ENDS~
NOTES TO EDITOR: