SNP dealt blow as NHS recovery in Scotland lagging behind England
SNP Health Secretary is under pressure to rewrite his NHS recovery plan after analysis found Scotland is lagging behind England.
SNP ministers have been urged to rethink their NHS recovery strategy after new analysis found hospital performance is “still worsening” in Scotland, but “improving” in England.
Findings from the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) revealed hospital activity in Scotland “remains substantially below pre-pandemic levels” and has not shown a recovery, as has started to happen south of the Border.
The divergence has emerged despite the Scottish Government bringing forward targets to increase activity and increases in staffing.
Between April and June, hospitals in Scotland treated 6 per cent fewer inpatient and day cases and delivered 6 per cent fewer outpatient appointments than before the pandemic.
The Scottish Government’s NHS recovery plan, published in 2021, aimed to increase inpatient and day case activity to 15 per cent above pre-pandemic levels this year.
The IFS said one reason for the failure to increase activity is that patients now have a much higher average length of stay in hospital, in part due to challenges with delayed discharges. But in England, many measures of hospital activity are now substantially above pre-pandemic levels.
The IFS analysis has stressed “there is a clearer difference between Scotland and England when it comes to performance over the last year”.
It added: “In Scotland, almost all measures of NHS performance have worsened over the last year. For example, the elective waiting list has continued to grow from 692,000 in September 2023 to 725,000 in September 2024, and the share of patients waiting less than four hours at A&E has fallen slightly from 66.5 per cent in September 2023 to 65.9 per cent in September 2024.
“The only measure considered that has improved in Scotland is for diagnostic tests, where the share waiting six weeks or less has risen from 49.8 per cent in September 2023 to 53.6 per cent in September 2024.
“But in England, most measures have improved over the last year. For example, a smaller share of patients are waiting more than four hours at A&E, a larger share of patients are being treated within 62 days for cancer, and a larger share of patients are receiving diagnostic tests within six weeks.
“This therefore suggests that hospital performance is still worsening in Scotland, while it is improving in England.”
Max Warner, research economist at the IFS and author of the briefing, said: ‘The Scottish and English NHS are now recovering differently from the Covid-19 pandemic.
“In Scotland, hospital activity remains below pre-pandemic levels, and waiting time performance has worsened over the last year. The same is not true in England, where performance remains poor, but is at least moving in the right direction.
“The UK government has been honest about the poor performance of the English NHS and has made understanding and improving NHS performance and productivity a major priority. It is vital the Scottish Government does the same, particularly given the concerning divergence in recovery between England and Scotland.”
Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Sandesh Gulhane said: “This report delivers a damning verdict on the SNP’s mismanagement of our NHS. It confirms that Humza Yousaf’s flimsy recovery plan was not worth the paper it was written on and has failed to remobilise crucial frontline services.”
He added: “On the SNP’s watch, hundreds of thousands of patients remain on NHS waiting lists, delayed discharge has hit record levels and cancer waiting times have not been met in over a decade.
“The IFS’s findings should be an urgent wake-up call for Neil Gray who should be honest about the permanent crisis in Scotland’s NHS. He must accept his current approach is failing and outline a real plan that accelerates the recovery in our health service.”
Scottish Liberal Democrats leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “This is a damning indictment of the SNP’s failure to tackle the crisis in our NHS. Ministers have repeatedly boasted about Scotland’s superior performance to England, but this report makes a total mockery of those claims.”
He added: “Hundreds of thousands of Scots are stuck on an NHS waiting list. Every day people sit in agony at A&E departments, wondering if they will ever be seen.
“This Government must stop making up bogus excuses and finally confront the emergency in front of them. That starts by rewriting Humza Yousaf’s botched NHS Recovery Plan and repairing the crisis in social care, so that more people can leave hospital on time. You can’t fix the NHS without fixing care.”
Scottish Labour deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie said the report told the Government what patients and staff have known for years, that “Scottish hospitals are buckling under the strain of SNP incompetence”.
She said: “The SNP pledged over a year ago that it would spend £300 million in driving down waiting lists, but just £30m of this funding has been allocated to health boards so far.
“At the same time, we know that there were 50,000 fewer planned ops in the last 12 months compared to same point pre-pandemic. This is simply unacceptable. Scottish Labour will tackle delayed discharge and reduce waiting lists so our hospitals can focus on emergency treatment once again.”
The Scottish Government has been contacted for comment.
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