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A former SNP Health Secretary has blamed successive governments - including her own - for the state of Scotland’s NHS. Jeane Freeman - who was Health Secretary between 2018 and 2021 - said politicians do not look at how the health service could be improved long-term because they are too busy focussing on the next election. She said governments did not gather the views of NHS staff "because politics gets in the way of it". Freeman said politicians "look for what they need to do in order to remain in power or to gain power". She continued: "The problem with that is the substance of issues can get lost because what we're actually talking about is, what do I need to do to remain in power as opposed to what do I need to do to fix this?” She said: "Successive governments – my own included – do not take a long-term, beyond-the-electoral-cycle view of our health service. "They do not take a view that says some of the people who best know what we need to do are actually our clinical and frontline teams." She the way to improve the NHS was "don't leave it to the politicians" and to take in "widespread" views from clinicians. She told the BBC: "I'm including the housekeeping, the janitorial, the booking staff, the maintenance, as well as the consultants, the doctors, the nurses, physios and others. "Get them to sit down and work out what they think needs to be done in order to allow them to deliver a better service. "I would put money on the fact that actually they know that they have some of the answers already." At the end of September some 628,696 Scots - equivalent to one in nine people in Scotland - were on an NHS waiting list. A recent social attitudes survey also found that 69 per cent of people felt that health service performance is getting worse. The Royal College of Medicine said that 800 deaths last year were linked to long A&E waits. Current Health Secretary Neil Gray announced an extra half a million pounds for recruiting GP surgery staff last week. It comes after the British Medical Association entered a formal dispute over the GP surgery budget. The BMA said it had fallen in real terms every year since 2008 and that £290m would be needed to plug the gap. A Scottish government spokesperson said: "We are investing a record £21.7bn in health and social care this year, targeting areas with the longest waits, tackling backlogs, and ensuring patients get the care they need faster. "Through our Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework and our 10-year Population Health Framework we have set out a collective long-term approach to reform and renewal of health and social care. "These were shaped through engagement with clinical leaders and system partners to ensure they are grounded in the realities of service delivery. "We continue to work closely with health and care professionals to ensure services are sustainable, responsive, and focused on improving outcomes for patients across Scotland."
