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The NHS is nothing without the staff who are the backbone of our most cherished public service. They put in a heroic shift every day and care for the sick every day of the year around the clock. But the mismanagement of the NHS has led to staffing shortages in nearly every area of the health service. The Covid pandemic has also placed huge pressure on staff and they are close to breaking point. Our story today about more than one million lost days of staff time for nurses and midwives is deeply alarming. This startling figure relates to poor mental health and it is clear frontline staff are struggling to cope due to the workloads they face. In NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde alone, the number of lost days last year came to the equivalent of 64,528. NHS Lothian’s number was 40,900, while it was 36,328 in NHS Lanarkshire. Staff are fed up of hearing platitudes from politicians about the debt of gratitude owed to NHS workers. They are tired of receiving applause when what they really want is fair pay and dignity. The SNP Government has had 18 years to preside over a reformed NHS and it has failed. Hundreds of thousands of Scots are languishing on waiting lists and staff are burned out. Patients will never benefit from the service they need if the staff are too poorly to come to work. Health Secretary Neil Gray needs to get a grip and sort out the mental health crisis in our NHS. An opinion poll confirms a Clear trend for the next Holyrood election. Nigel Farage’s Reform UK are on the way up and Scottish Labour are languishing in third place, smoothing the path to a fifth SNP term. This shift also reflects the change in fortunes of Labour and Reform south of the Border. But such an outcome next year would be a disaster for Scotland. If Reform UK ended up as the largest opposition party, it would use this -platform to divide our country. This poll is a wake-up call for the established parties to get their act together. Voters feel angry at the failures over successive governments over the past decade and a half. They feel ignored and are flocking to Reform to exercise a protest vote. Labour must start delivering in office to avert a disaster in May.
