Six months to save the NHS in Scotland, says Labour's Anas Sarwar on countdown to Holyrood election

The Scottish Labour leader has said there is “six months to save Scotland’s NHS”, marking half a year until the Holyrood election.

Anas Sarwar said Scotland’s NHS “will not survive a third decade of SNP failure”, as he looked ahead to the poll in May.

He said: “In half a year’s time Scotland will elect a new Scottish Government and the stakes could not be higher.

“Right now, one in six Scots are on an NHS waiting list, record numbers of people are being forced to go private, and thousands of patients every week face dangerously long waits in A&E.

“The SNP has blown a hole in the founding principles of our NHS, and I truly fear our health service will not survive a third decade of this SNP failure.

“Too many Scots are being let down in their hour of need, being forced to spend their life-savings on private healthcare or languish on waiting lists for years on end – but this is not as good as it gets.”

Of those on an NHS waiting list, 12,456 people have been waiting more than two years for an inpatient procedure or outpatient appointment.

On Tuesday, it emerged two health boards required large loans from the Scottish Government to break even in the last financial year.

Audit Scotland said NHS Grampian and NHS Ayrshire & Arran both received multimillion-pound loans.

Sarwar said: “We have six months to get rid of this tired, incompetent SNP Government and save Scotland’s NHS.

“A Scottish Labour government will tackle the waiting list emergency by utilising capacity across the country, end the 8am GP rush by renegotiating the GP contract, ensure our NHS can benefit from cutting-edge technology, support hardworking NHS staff with a real workforce plan, and ease the pressure on hospitals by properly supporting social care and primary care.

“The only way to save Scotland’s NHS is by getting rid of the SNP in six months’ time, and the only party that can do that is Scottish Labour.”

SNP depute leader Keith Brown said: “People in Scotland only have to look down south to see what a Labour Government looks like. In England, waiting times are rising month after month, and in Wales A&E waiting times performance is truly appalling.

“By contrast, under John Swinney’s leadership, waiting times in Scotland are coming down, GP numbers are up, and we’ve seen record numbers of hip and knee replacements performed last year.

“There is much more to do, and the SNP Government recently announced a historic funding deal with GPs and plans to introduce a network of seven-day-a-week walk-in GP clinics across Scotland.

“Anas Sarwar has had five years as Labour leader and he has not come up with a single original idea to improve people’s lives. You cannot run a government on soundbites alone – but given Mr Sarwar is leading Labour into third place in Scotland, he is never going to find what running government is like.”