SNP hit by fury as 'catastrophic' NHS failure leads to 'meltdown'

The SNP has been blasted for its inability to help the NHS as is continues to spiral out of control.

Last week Nicola Sturgeon warned that Scotland’s hospitals are “almost completely full” while outlining her plans to ease pressure on the healthcare service.

She said: “The reality is hospitals right now are currently almost full. Last Wednesday, hospital bed occupancy across Scotland exceeded 95 per .

“Now for context, at the same stage in 2020, before the pandemic struck, occupancy was around 87 per cent”.

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Health Secretary Humza Yousaf today said “pandemic backlogs, inflation costs and Brexit influencing staff shortages” were contributers to the crisis over the winter, along with increases in flu, Covid-19 and Strep A cases.

He added: “We are doing everything we can to help the health service through the remainder of the most challenging winter in its history,”

But statistics from Public Health Scotland released today showed that 57.3 per cent of people who went to A&E in the week to January 8 were seen within the target time of four hours.

This is only a slight improvement on the previous week, rising from 56 per cent.

The Conservative shadow health secretary Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: ”These catastrophic figures are further proof that our A&E departments are in meltdown on Humza Yousaf's watch."

“We know that, tragically, these excess delays are leading to scores of people dying unnecessarily every single week under this SNP Government. It is totally unacceptable that over 40 per cent of patients are having to wait more than four hours to be seen.

“The health secretary has lost the trust of hard-working frontline staff and long-suffering patients.

“They are paying a huge price for his ever-growing list of failures and his flimsy winter action plan. I have outlined a detailed winter recovery plan full of measures which could ease the pressure on our NHS right now but Humza Yousaf refuses to listen.

"He should resign immediately or Nicola Sturgeon should get a grip on reality and sack him."