The Scotsman Bulletin Monday January 27 2025 #NHS

The Scotsman

Dale speaks to David Bol, our deputy political editor about latest announcements from the SNP on the NHS

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Monday. My name's Dale Miller,

00:05I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined by Deputy Political Editor David Boll.

00:12David, before we get to talking about the latest on politics, well I'm going to reference it on

00:16the front page of today's paper anyway. We're led on John Swinney vowing 150,000 extra NHS

00:24appointments per year. At the time of recording this he is due to give a speech effectively

00:30and present the government's plan for tackling the NHS. We know that 21 billion pounds was

00:36set aside in the 2025-26 budget to go directly towards improving NHS and social care. So this

00:44is the government of John Swinney effectively laying out some practical steps that they're

00:48going to take as well. We also know National Holocaust Memorial Day, which marks today,

00:58is a significant part of our coverage. You'll see that picture on the front there.

01:02And the cleanup from the storm continues. There were still thousands of homes without power as

01:08of this morning and work is ongoing to try and clear up after storm Eowyn. Ongoing implications

01:17there and the rail network slowly but steadily returning to normal. David, on the NHS, it's

01:24obviously your story on the front today. You can read that at Scotsman.com. What do you think,

01:30just spell out what Swinney was saying that he was announcing today and what do you think the

01:35reaction will be to it? Yeah, so this was John Swinney basically setting up the extra funding

01:40that you mentioned being allocated to the NHS, which came obviously from the UK government. We

01:44got a big boost to Holyrood from Labour and a lot of that has gone straight to the NHS.

01:50And it's basically to create more capacity in the NHS for appointments and to kind of trip away at

01:54those waiting lists. This is basically John Swinney's strategy to make, he's got a big election

01:59pledge, which is a target which has already been missed, but he's kind of reset it and said by

02:06March 2026, no one for various appointments will not wait longer than a year, which seems like a

02:13long way to wait, but in context of where the NHS is now, that will be quite a big improvement

02:18for a lot of people. There's obviously a big pledge a couple of months out from that election

02:23and he's kind of put this policy on the line and this is kind of, if he doesn't meet it, then he

02:29could quite easily fall flat in this election. So this is wanting 150,000 extra appointments,

02:37which will obviously clear a lot of that backlog. There's also talk of sort of a new app being set

02:43up for social care and the NHS. We're not sure on the details yet how that will sort of

02:48transform things. Critics have already said, well, you've had, the SNP have had almost 20 years,

02:55two decades to manage the NHS and sort it out. Why would now be any different? So we'll have to

03:01see what the detail is behind John Swinney's plans, but this is quite bold and he's also saying he'll

03:06take personal leadership alongside Neil Gray, the Health Secretary, to kind of revive the NHS and

03:12get it back to where people expect it to be. David, it's interesting. We obviously know what's

03:19been happening with LimoGate as it's been dubbed around Neil Gray. Should we read anything into

03:24the fact that it's John Swinney front and centre today, the NHS announcements and not Neil Gray,

03:29the Health Secretary, who you would think under normal circumstances would be leading things?

03:35No, I wouldn't have thought too much. I think John Swinney wants to put his name on this because

03:39he's putting it as his key policy. Obviously, he's got other priorities like child poverty,

03:46but he wants to put his name on this and say I'm taking responsibility for it. I don't think,

03:50I know there's been a lot of talk about Neil Gray being sidelined, but he will obviously

03:53play a key role in this and I imagine part of the announcements he'll be involved in as well.

03:59He may be, as well, there's been a lot of criticism saying that Neil Gray has been sidelined,

04:03so I think he'll make a point of showing that Neil Gray is on top of his brief.

04:08The kind of defence last week when they were getting a lot of criticism was

04:12that Neil Gray was just carrying on with his very important job of Health Secretary. I think

04:16they'll very much want to focus on that going forward, especially with these announcements

04:20being made. The move for the app around social care, we're obviously coming out of a week where

04:26the National Care Service was effectively axed for good. Do you think the app will be a bit

04:34underwhelming for people that were hoping that we're still going to get some reform in this area

04:38or it will be viewed as a positive? I know you covered the National Care Service announcement

04:42last week as well. Yes, the Scottish Government insists that the National Care Service is still

04:47in existence, but it's obviously not what it was billed as, this big sort of centralised

04:53service to put it on a footing with the NHS. People were left a bit underwhelmed by the fact

05:00that an advisory board is kind of the replacement, and if it's that along with just an app that

05:05doesn't really help people out with appointments and delayed discharge, it will be seen as kind

05:10of watering down and maybe they're out of ideas. So there is a risk that it will be seen as, yes,

05:15a bit of a, what is this it? But we'll have to wait and see what the app actually does, whether

05:21it can actually help people into getting the care they need quicker,

05:26or if it is just a bit of smoke and mirrors. David, just lastly, is it fair to say Scottish

05:32Labor are going to be hardest on whether this health stuff works or not? I think most weeks

05:36Anas Sarwar asks a question about the health service. It has been something he's sort of

05:42pinned his name and his party against. Will they be watching the closest? And can I also ask John

05:49Swinney, by tying himself to health, is he taking something viewed as maybe Labor's strength away

05:56from it? Possibly, but he needs to, he'll need to follow through on those pledges. I mean,

06:03it is a big risk for John Swinney, but he kind of has to deliver. That is going to be the strategy

06:07from the Scottish Government, I think, going ahead to the election is to actually deliver

06:12on some of these promises. It's been the biggest problem with them in government is making all

06:15these promises that people generally are quite pleased with and vote them in to achieve,

06:21and then they don't happen. So he's kind of putting his neck on the line with the NHS and

06:25he'll have to deliver. Labor, yes, they have. You're right, Anas Sarwar has kind of got an obsession

06:30with bringing up the NHS at FMQs. I think Labor's strategy is to just chip away at that and just

06:36reinforce the message that the NHS is in a little bit of a mess, and that won't change. They

06:42obviously want to take credit for the extra funding that's come from their colleagues at

06:46Westminster for this, and they'll just, they'll find any little thing that goes wrong, they'll

06:52jump on, I would imagine, because like you said, it is their big strategy and their big sort of

06:58way of attacking the Scottish Government is through their sort of underachieving health

07:02service. So it's going to be a story as we go forward through this year and into the next

07:06election, and I can imagine those two parties will just be squabbling over how effective the NHS is

07:13throughout, and changing the health service and improving it can't be done overnight. So

07:18they need time, but opposition parties will say, well, the SNP have had plenty of time to do that

07:23already. Just outside of that, on the politics front, we know Sir Keith Starmer and Donald Trump

07:30had a 45-minute phone conversation overnight. They talked about a range of things, including

07:37obviously the situation in the Middle East, as well as trade. It was interesting to see in the

07:42readout Sir Keith Starmer referring to a deregulation of the economy within the UK.

07:49There seemed to be clear messages to Donald Trump there, if you're reading between the lines around

07:54the economy, with the threat of tariffs hanging over the UK and Scotland. But certainly the

08:02mood music was positive out of that conversation ahead of the visit from Starmer to the US over the

08:08next couple of weeks. You can read all the latest of the stories that we've spoken about at

08:12Scotsman.com. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Blue Sky. Go and buy a copy of the paper tomorrow

08:18when we'll have a full wrap of Swinney's speech and what else he had to say from today. Thanks

08:24to you, David, and thanks everyone else for watching.

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