14 January 2025 – today’s press releases

  • Tulip Siddiq resignation: People expected better from this government
  • Worst 8 hour A&E wait times in 2 years
  • More than 2,000 people stuck in hospital
  • Operations activity stagnating below pre-pandemic levels
  • McArthur comments on assisted dying evidence session
  • Carmichael welcomes protection of coastguard helicopter readiness

Tulip Siddiq resignation: People expected better from this government

Following Tulip Siddiq’s resignation as Treasury Minister, Sarah Olney MP, Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokesperson, said:

It’s right Tulip Siddiq resigned, you can’t have an anti-corruption minister mired in a corruption scandal.

After years of Conservative sleaze and scandal, people rightly expected better from this government.

Worst 8 hour A&E wait times in 2 years

Responding to new figures showing only 58.7% of people attending A&E were seen within the 4 hour target in the week ending 5th January, while 18.3% of people waited over 8 hours (the worst since January 2023) and 9.1% waited over 12 hours, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

These figures show almost 1 in 5 waited more than 8 hours at A&E, the worst for nearly 2 years. It is now clear that the SNP’s NHS Recovery Plan has completely failed.

These waits are intolerable for staff and patients alike. The Scottish Government needs to start taking urgent action to address these conditions.

Scottish Liberal Democrats would overhaul the SNP’s failed NHS Recovery Plan, get you fast access to GPs and help people leave hospital on time through a new UK-wide minimum wage for care workers that is £2 higher.

More than 2,000 people stuck in hospital

Responding to new Public Health Scotland figures showing 2,020 people were stuck in hospital at the November census due to their discharge being delayed, amongst the worst on record, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

SNP mismanagement has led to eye-watering numbers of people stuck in hospital unnecessarily because they can’t get the care they need at home or in the community.

This creates a backlog right across our NHS, contributing to agonising waits in A&E and ambulances stacking up outside the front door. It goes to show that you can’t save our NHS unless you fix the care crisis.

The Health Secretary needs to re-write the failed NHS Recovery Plan. It’s also essential to drop the doomed takeover of social care that has already seen millions wasted on bureaucracy instead of being spent on services and staff to enable people to leave hospital on time.

Operations activity stagnating below pre-pandemic levels

Responding to Public Health Scotland figures published today which show that the number of planned operations is still falling short of pre-pandemic levels, with 15.2% fewer operations planned between December 2023 and November 2024 than were planned in the 12 months prior to the pandemic, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

Behind every cancelled operation is a patient who has been left in pain and worried if they will ever get the treatment they need. This SNP government is failing them.

These figures are yet more evidence of the dangerous backlogs and pressures that we know the NHS is under. The Health Secretary must rewrite the failed NHS Recovery Plan because after three years staff are overwhelmed and the system is clearly going backwards on so many measures.

McArthur comments on assisted dying evidence session

Responding to today’s evidence session in which the Scottish Parliament’s health committee took evidence from various health and disability organisations on his Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill, Liam McArthur MSP said:

Public polling is clear that Scots both with and without a disability are overwhelmingly in favour of a change in the law to allow terminally ill people the choice of an assisted death.

I am confident that my proposals represent a robust and well safeguarded bill, allowing Scots access to the choice of an assisted death if they have an advanced, progressive terminal illness and the mental capacity to make the decision.

Likewise protections in the bill ensure that no doctor or medical professional will be compelled to take part. In a bill that underscores choice, that is entirely appropriate.

Carmichael welcomes protection of coastguard helicopter readiness

Orkney and Shetland MP, Alistair Carmichael, has welcomed the government’s announcement today that the current readiness state for coastguard search-and-rescue helicopters based at Sumburgh in Shetland and Stornaway will be protected at the existing level of 15 minutes during the daytime and 45 minutes at night, calling it “a win for islanders, by islanders”.

Mr Carmichael led a debate on the future of coastguard helicopter services in which the Minister for Maritime, Mike Kane MP, made the concession, following proposals from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in 2023 to quadruple response times from the base at Sumburgh. During a previous debate led by Mr Carmichael in November 2023, the then-government committed to a review of the plans, which led to the policy reversal announced today.

Reacting after the debate, Mr Carmichael said:

This is exceptionally welcome news. It will be a breath of relief for everyone who works and travels at sea around the Northern Isles and indeed across the UK.

Fundamentally it is a win for islanders, by islanders. If it had not been for the actions of whistleblowers and local journalists to bring these plans to light as early as they did, we might have been faced with a “done deal” and no way to reverse it. As it is, we have shown the difference that can be made by acting fast and refusing to back down on the services that really matter to us.

I have to give credit to the minister. He has listened, recognised the problem and acted on it. That is not always something we can take for granted.

It would be nice, of course, if the fight to protect the helicopter service had not been necessary in the first place. The lesson for the government – which should be kept in mind when they consider the future of other services such as the emergency tug in the isles – is that such arguments are not worth having. We should not be forced to fight to protect these basic services – but if we have to, we will.

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