Leader Admits NHS 24 Was Mishandled By Previous Executive
By DOUGLAS FRASER
THE out-of-hours NHS service was mishandled by the last Scottish Executive and needs to be radically reformed, according to the Liberal Democrats.
Their leader, Nicol Stephen, admitted at his party’s conference this weekend that it is not working, despite being a minister himself over the past eight years.
He said: “I have seen it threaten the safety of my own family and take the lives of too many vulnerable people, young and old alike. Urgent action is needed.”
The father of four young children, who lives in Aberdeen, refused to give any more detail of what had gone wrong for his family, but it is understood that his comments ref lect pressure on MSPs from constituents about widespread problems with the service.
Mr Stephen said it failed to provide adequate cover while “trying to cover a glaring gap in the provision of local care. The service we used to know has gone”.
He made clear that the GPs’ contract, allowing many of them to refuse to provide outof-hours cover, should be re-negotiated. “I want to see GPs, nurses, paramedics and pharmacists come together to design a new model that provides all patients with 24-hour local healthcare and that removes this false and sometimes dangerous barrier between in-hours and out-ofhours services.”
LibDems are also preparing to risk potentially controversial NHS reforms that will not preserve district general hospitals, instead boosting GP-led clinics and centralising many services.
The comments on NHS 24 were a rare admission that policy went wrong during the Labour-LibDem administration from 1999 to last spring.
There was a lack of frankness in the leader’s speech about what went wrong at this year’s Holyrood election, when the LibDems tried to challenge Labour and the SNP, but instead lost ground and moved into opposition.
Instead, Mr Stephen’s speech to activists in Glasgow set out the themes he wants developed to give the party a distinctive edge in opposition: civil liberties, the environment, health, education and poverty.
Civil liberties is seen as what is most likely to mark out the LibDems as different, including opposition to retention of DNA for all suspects of crime.
He said: “We want a society where the innocent go free and their rights, their freedoms are protected. We will be the guardians of those freedoms, not the guarantors of Guantanamo.”
On education, Mr Stephen said he wants it more individualised for each pupil. LibDems will look at a Swedish system for giving each pupil a personal timetable, with more of the subjects where they excel and more support if it is needed.
Originally published by Newsquest Media Group.
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