Politics: Councillor criticises rhetoric on health provision in light of report
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Councillor Glen Reynolds is an Aberdeenshire Councillor and a member of the Aberdeenshire Integration Joint Board which is the umbrella for NHS and council health and social care provision across Aberdeenshire. He writes this in a personal capacity and the views are his own.
"The recent blasts of anti SNP rhetoric and the narrative surrounding attacks on the performance of NHS Scotland by some Tory MPs and MSPs in the Shire would be arguably more credible and less a stunning example of hypocrisy, if it were not for the fact that the Tories have played a significant factor in the ‘where we are now’ scenario and the staffing crisis undermining health and social care provision.
"Buried under the festive radar by the Tories are the damming findings published on December 20 by the leading research body, the Nuffield Trust, in its ‘Going it alone: Health and Brexit in the UK’.
"The increasingly divisive and opportunistic onslaught by the likes of Messrs Bowie, Burnett and Duguid fails to recognise that their Westminster masters and their no-deal Brexit policy, has directly led to large numbers of consultants, dentists and nurses recruited into the NHS from the EU slumping dramatically since the UK left the trading bloc. These individuals should be called out in having contributed to the staffing crisis across the health and social care service.
"The report suggests further, that a weaker pound and disruptions to trade – both of which they link to Brexit – have meant that medicine shortages are becoming more frequent.
"The number of nurses and health visitors from the EU registered in the UK plummeted by nearly 30 per cent between September 2016 and September 2021, the report found.
"For dentists, the number registering to work in the UK each year has halved since 2016. Indeed, the report argues that Brexit has helped contribute to a shortage of specialist doctors in the UK, including anaesthetists and heart and lung experts.
"Whilst any discussions with the Health Minister are welcome, let us never forget the elephant in the room here, so that the staffing shortages that have struck Aboyne and Glen O’Dee in recent months, (after Insch War Memorial Hospital was mothballed with similar reasons given during the Covid pandemic), it is breath-taking that the likes of MSP Alexander Burnett and MPs Andrew Bowie and Duguid have expressed disquiet over the recruitment and retention of nursing staff and clinicians across the north-east, and not including the elephant in the room – the juxtaposition of Brexit and staff recruitment.
"The scrapping of a proposed redesign of health and social care in Deeside and Upper Donside, following a 1000-person consultation that overwhelmingly called for further investment instead of centralisation has merit, but it has to be staffed and the calls for further investment should be aimed at Westminster.
"Throwing money unless that includes making pay deals more attractive, will not solve this problem.
"The forthcoming updates on the rural workforce recruitment strategy is part of this package, but at the heart of the recruitment gap, is a problem that only Westminster can fix as immigration is a reserved issue.
"Mark Dayan of the Nuffield Trust said: 'The effects of Brexit appear to have added to the severe challenges and problems the NHS currently faces.
"The economic hit of Brexit, combined with the worst cost of living crisis for a generation, is reducing living standards, creating additional need for health and care.'
"Instead of making ludicrous and incorrect and skewed comparisons with health and social care provision elsewhere in the UK, Tory parliamentarians should be supporting our workers and negotiating around the table to enhance pay and fix the ruinous immigration system surrounding this issue.
"Do they not recognise that in addition to Covid, the country has been experiencing (as stated by the First Minister) extraordinary levels of winter flu, more than 1000 patients being admitted to hospital with flu during each of the last two weeks, and there has also been a rising number of cases of Strep A and other respiratory viruses resulting in a significant demand for services?
"Workforce-related issues such as staffing, sustainability and wellbeing were the most pressing concern following the introduction of new immigration rules.
"The situation in social care is the most urgent, where new immigration rules effectively halt immigration from the EEA.
"If the Tory government wanted to solve the UK's NHS crisis they would ditch their hostile environment and reform the draconian migration system to allow us to recruit the workers we need.
"But the Tories continue to refuse to listen to common sense."
