Exclusive:Next Scottish government 'will be held to the fire' if NHS does not improve, warns Unison

Matt McLaughlin, head of health at Unison in Scotland, said using the Covid pandemic as an excuse had "run its course". He said politicians north of the border had "failed to be brave" on the NHS, which he argued requires a “fundamental reboot”.

"John Swinney may well be content that he is making progress,” Mr McLaughlin told The Scotsman. “The new government, in my view, has 100 days to make a big, big impact and if they don't they will be held to the fire.”

Unison, which is one of the UK’s largest trade unions, with more than 1.3 million members, is currently holding its health service group conference in Edinburgh.

Polling consistently shows health is a top priority for voters when it comes to the Holyrood election on May 7.

Mr Swinney, the First Minister and SNP leader, came under pressure over NHS waiting times during the first TV leaders’ debate of the election campaign on Sunday evening.

READ MORE: Swinney put under pressure over health during first TV leaders' debate

He accepted there are people who have “waited too long for treatment” and partly attributed this to the impact of the Covid pandemic, adding: “When I became First Minister, I pledged to get long waits down and that is exactly what is happening.”

Mr McLaughlin said: "Fundamentally, the system is not working as it could or as it should. I think the reason for that is that we have had two decades of politicians - more than that, we have had a Scottish Parliament - who have failed to be brave on the NHS, and who are too scared of the electoral cycle to make big, bold positive decisions on the NHS, and I think that's the problem."

He said there needed to be a "fair deal" for social care workers.

"We consistently in Scotland expect social care workers to provide care for the most complicated, unwell people in our community, but we want to pay them rubbish wages [with] poor conditions.,” he said.

"We have to professionalise social care in the same way that we would professionalise other forms of personal, nursing-type care."

Mr McLaughlin added: "What we need is a fundamental review of the NHS with public involvement, and almost a kind of social contract in Scotland that says, 'This is the kind of NHS and social care services we want to provide for the future, and this is how we will provide them,' rather than people managing the deckchairs in a ship that's holed under the waterline."

The union official criticised the quality of debate about the NHS and social care during the election campaign.

"It's absolutely jargonistic, and I don't think it's fooling anyone either in Unison or in the broader electorate,” he said. 

"I do think this government has been fortunate in the sense that they have been able to blame some of the problems and difficulties on the Covid pandemic. 

"I think we would say to any incoming government - that excuse has run its course, and I think Scotland as a nation will be looking to the new government to deliver on health, and it's got to be better than the current jargonistic, generalised, woolly commitments and promises. 

"The NHS in Scotland needs a fundamental review, a fundamental reboot and fundamental investment."

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Clare Haughey, the SNP candidate for Rutherglen and Cambuslang, said: “Under John Swinney’s strong leadership, the SNP is focused on improving Scotland’s health service and our plan is working.

“Long waits are down, operation numbers are up, we have more GPs and are opening GP walk-in centres across the country.

“In sharp contrast, in England we have the Labour Health Secretary admitting that he is ‘ashamed’ of his own government’s record on the health service and we are seeing the latest round of doctor strikes.”

Scottish Conservative health spokesperson Dr Sandesh Gulhane said Mr McLaughlin’s comments were “a brutal but accurate verdict on the SNP's mismanagement of the NHS and John Swinney's desperate attempts to blame the pandemic for his party's failings”.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “When I’m out speaking to people across the country, they tell me about the 8am rush for appointments and how they are struggling to see their GP. After 19 years of the SNP, Scotland deserves better.”