Scottish Conservatives, under the leadership of David Cameron and Annabel Goldie, are backing a new, national campaign to express support for the staff of our NHS and the patients they serve.
Hospitals that were built up under the Conservatives are now being run down by Labour. Labour's cuts are real cuts. They are really hurting in communities in Scotland. Far from increasing capacity, Labour are sending our health service in the wrong direction by centralising services. This means that good, local services are centralised to the undoubted detriment of patients.
Health spending has doubled since 1997 and will reach £10 billion by 2008 but despite this:
- Hospitals, both large and small, are facing cutbacks and closures.
- The decision has been taken to close Ayr Hospital's Accident and Emergency unit, centralising all A&E services in Ayrshire at a single site in Kilmarnock. This follows on from the recent decisions to close a cottage hospital in the Borders and the loss of A&E services from Monklands hospital.
- The acute sector sector has lost over 7000 beds since 1999.
- Trainee doctors and nurses face an uncertain future.
How is it that when more and more taxpayers' money is poured into the health service, we see that more and more hospitals are facing cuts and closures?
We want everyone to show support for the NHS and those who work in it - please sign our petition to stop cuts.
What needs to be done?
We need to rebuild a National Health Service in Scotland that responds to the clinical needs of patients, rather than the targets of ministers. It cannot be right that some NHS managers have asked for certain cancer surgeries to be postponed so more minor operations, such as wisdom teeth treatment, could be done within waiting targets.
Change is necessary in the NHS. But that change must come from the bottom up: driven by the wishes and needs of the NHS professionals and patients. We believe decisions affecting local services should not be taken by distant politicians and bureaucrats, but by the patients and front line staff who use and work in our local NHS.
" Often, healthcare is needed in situations over which we have no control. Unexpectedly we, our families, and our friends, find ourselves in need of all the skill and experience which the NHS can offer. It is in these circumstances that the NHS provide such a vital service. For those crucial minutes, hours, days and weeks in the lives of the men, women and children involved, the NHS becomes their lifeline - literally. It becomes their prop. It becomes their hope. It becomes their salvation. And we're all profoundly grateful for that." Annabel Goldie MSP, October 2006.
We need to end the excessive interference from the Government
The Scottish Executive's mismanagement is forcing short term decision making. Hospitals are closing their wards, leaving patients without the services in the community they need. We believe that short term cuts in the NHS at the expense of building services for the future are unacceptable, and that this short-sightedness will prove even more costly in the long run.
Labour/Lib Dem politicians have ignored the very real challenges stacking up for the future - for example, obesity, alcohol abuse and sexually transmitted diseases. We believe that tackling tomorrow's challenges today will save us lives and resources in the long term.