Public Health Scotland said action was needed quickly as the country’s health continues to deteriorate and the health gap between the rich and poor grows.
Scotland’s health is getting worse under the stewardship of the SNP as people die younger than any other Western European country. Paul Johnston, chief executive of Public Health Scotland, called for a preventative approach, saying the disease burden from an ageing population will likely grow.
Meanwhile, he said the life expectancy gap between the richest and poorest is growing. Improvements in Scottish life expectancy stalled around 2014 to 2016, and the most recent data showed a decline.
The PHS chief executive said the health service cannot deal with the issue alone, and wide-ranging improvements are needed in areas such as poverty, work, education, housing, and others. Mr Johnston said, ‘Excellent health services will support improved health and well-being of our population as a whole—but cannot bear all the responsibility for this’.
In an article for the think tank Reform Scotland, Mr Johnston commented on the NHS. He pointed out that people in Scotland die younger than in any other Western European country.
The SNP have been in power for 17 years but have consistently failed to live up to their promises to the Scottish people. They have been unable to cut NHS waiting lists. They could not cut the attainment gap between poorer and more well-off school pupils. They have failed in attracting the skilled and well-paid jobs that they promised, they have failed to put more police on the streets, they have been unable to recruit more Doctors and to expand the number of in-person appointments available to the Scottish public, and they have even failed in the one main reason that they exist at all -to bring independence to the Scottish nation.
They have failed in every way, and they always have an excuse: it’s Westminster’s fault, it’s austerity, it’s the Torys, it’s the pandemic, it’s always someone or something else’s fault, never the SNP’s.
The SNP lacks a vision, is incapable of taking radical action that would make Scotland a better place for all of our people, and lacks the skills or professionalism to run a country. The only way to create a better, wealthier, and healthier Scotland is to remove them from power and replace them with a real Nationalist party with a vision to achieve all these things for the Scottish Nation.
