By Rachel Amery

Copyright scotsman

The NHS is “lurching towards a winter collapse”, despite the SNP’s health chief insisting the nationalists are “the ones with a plan” to turn the health service around. Health Secretary Neil Gray said he recognises there is still “pressure” in some parts of the NHS, but says the public should be reassured the government is making “significant” investments to help tackle this. This comes after a series of bad headlines for the Scottish Government on the health brief, including warnings that NHS staff are being “stretched beyond their limit”. New figures reveal frontline workers are regularly grappling with understaffed shifts, with opposition parties warning this is “driving NHS staff to the point of burnout”. Mr Gray defended his record as health secretary and insisted his government is building back the NHS. Get daily political analysis – subscribe for free to The Steamie Speaking to The Scotsman, he said: “We are the ones with a plan, we’re the party that has demonstrated that the plan is also working. “We’ve got a record number of hip and knee replacements delivered in the health service and last July we saw the highest number of operations delivered in the NHS since February 2020. “The increased and targeted investments we’re making, which were not supported by our two main opposition parties, are working well. “It’s clearly working – we have a plan to ensure our NHS doesn’t just respond to the needs of people in Scotland now, but in the future as well.” Mr Gray also said the SNP is securing the long-term vision of general practice by investing an additional £15m into the profession, insisting general practice is “in a very positive place”. He said: “I’m confident that we can move forward and genuinely shift the balance of care, which is what people want us to do. “They want us to deliver services in their communities, as close as possible to their homes, and that’s exactly what we’re seeking to do.” However Dr Sandesh Gulhane MSP, the Scottish Conservatives’ health spokesman and an NHS GP, said the health service is on the brink of total collapse. He said: “Who is Neil Gray trying to fool? The SNP have produced several ‘plans’ to lift Scotland’s NHS out of crisis – and none of them have worked. “Under the nationalists, A&E waiting times are through the roof, delayed discharge is at a record high and thousands of operations are being cancelled at the last minute. “No one believes Neil Gray can fix the crisis his party created.” He added: “As a frontline doctor, I can categorically tell the health secretary that his latest so-called ‘plan’ isn’t working either. Patients are suffering, staff are burning out and the NHS is lurching towards a winter collapse. “If Neil Gray really wants to make progress, he should bin the spin and back our bold plans to cut bureaucracy, slash the number of middle managers and divert resources to the frontline.” Mr Gray also rubbished claims his government is “fiddling” with NHS statistics to cover up record waiting times. Thousands of cases of cancelled and missed appointments have now been axed from the official statistics, something opposition parties have criticised as a “disgraceful attempt” to airbrush over the government’s failures. Mr Gray said: “It’s just not true. Public Health Scotland independently produced the health and social care statistics for us without any influence from government. “This is the agreed position on how we should be measuring waiting times that was passed in 2023, and Labour’s attacks on this are wholly without basis.”