Nicola Sturgeon sets out plans for full-scale post-pandemic remobilisation of Scotland’s NHS

by Grant Costello
Posted on
3 years ago
2 min read

Nicola Sturgeon has set out bold and ambitious plans that will see half of all spending on frontline NHS care will go to GPs and community services, alongside a commitment to massively increase both elective and short-term hospital capacity across Scotland.

In government the SNP has delivered record high spending on health and care services, exceeding over £16 billion, alongside free prescriptions, free personal and nursing care to everyone who needs it and ensuring that Scotland’s A&E services are the best performing in the UK.

Over the next five years, the First Minister declared a re-elected SNP government would go even further, with plans for a full-scale remobilisation of Scotland’s NHS after the COVID-19 pandemic.

If re-elected, an SNP Scottish Government would continue to make the NHS and social care key priorities and deliver on these key pledges:

  • The establishment of two new elective treatment centres in Ayrshire and in Cumbernauld, on top of the six already in development across Scotland, alongside pledging to the renewal of Edinburgh Eye Pavilion. Meaning Scotland will have a national network of 10 elective and diagnostic centres across the country.
  • The recruitment of additional 1,500 staff by 2025, dedicated to planned treatments and specialising in procedures like hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery and diagnostic services like MRI scans.
  • Utilise mobile operating theatres and to bring on stream under-utilised theatre capacity at community and general hospitals, such as at the East Lothian Community Hospital in Haddington as part of a plan to boost hospital capacity to remobilise the NHS.
  • With the increased surgical capacity likely leading to an increase in the need for intensive care beds, a re-elected SNP would expand the NHS’s normal pre Covid ICU capacity from 175 beds to at least 200.
  • Delivery of the first three in a network of fast-track cancer diagnostic centres – located in Fife, Ayrshire & Arran and in Dumfries & Galloway – to be operational by the end of May.

Bold and ambitious re-imaging of Scotland’s NHS post-pandemic

The ambition set out in our remobilisation plan is bold but also achievable – it is a plan to recover from the pandemic, remobilise our NHS and tackle the treatment backlog, and put the NHS on a secure and sustainable footing for the long term.

Working with our NHS staff, local communities, patient groups and trade unions, a re-elected SNP Scottish Government can make sure people get the treatment they need, and can get Scotland’s NHS not just back to where it was, but ready to serve Scotland long into the future

The ambition we are setting out in the remobilisation plan is bold but also achievable – it is a plan to recover from the pandemic, remobilise our NHS and tackle the treatment backlog, and out the NHS on a secure and sustainable footing for the long term.
Nicola Sturgeon
Nicola Sturgeon indyref