The Scottish Government must focus on transforming health and social care services to address the growing cost of the NHS and its recovery from Covid-19.
Improving the NHS will be very difficult against the competing demands of the pandemic and an increasing number of other policy initiatives, including plans for a National Care Service.
The health service in Scotland is on an emergency footing and remains under severe pressure. There is a growing backlog of patients waiting much longer for treatment because of the response needed to Covid-19. That has made workforce planning and delivering on ambitious recruitment plans all the more important. But the Scottish Government has historically struggled to recruit enough people with the right skills.
The NHS’s ability to plan remains hindered by a lack of robust and reliable data, including workforce, primary care, community, social care, and health inequalities data.
Meanwhile the pandemic has increased the fiscal pressures on the NHS, which remains financially unsustainable. This is despite the Scottish Government allocating £2.9 billion for pandemic-related costs in 2020/21 and committing more funding in 2021/22 and beyond.
Stephen Boyle, Auditor General for Scotland, said: “Reforming the NHS is key to the Scottish Government’s pandemic recovery plan and needs to remain a priority. Putting Covid costs to one side, health spending is rising every year, meaning less money for other public services.
“There’s now a clear opportunity to do things differently by building on the innovation and collaboration we’ve seen across the NHS in the last few years.
“For that to happen, our leaders must take the public with them and involve them in the shift from care being delivered in hospitals to much closer to people’s homes. But better-informed policy decisions and services won’t be possible without better collection and use of data.”
Russia has unleashed a military invasion of Ukraine, with reports of explosions near major cities across the country.
In a TV address to the Russian people early this morning, President Putin warned Western governments not to interfere.
Russia launched its military operation after recognising the self-proclaimed people’s republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine earlier this week. The breakaway pro-Russian regions later asked Moscow for military support, giving Putin an excuse, ifhe needed one, to escalate military operations.
In his announcement early this morning, Mr Putin said the military operation’s objective was to defend those people who had been subjected for eight years to “genocide by the Kyiv regime”.
In the TV statement Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia did not plan to occupy Ukraine, but said Moscow’s response would be “instant” if anyone tried to stop this.
While Western leaders have condemned Putin’s actions, NATO will not take up arms to support the Ukranian people.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the early hours of this morning.
The Prime Minister said he was appalled by the unfolding events in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian President updated the Prime Minister on the attacks taking place, and the Prime Minister said the West would not stand by as President Putin waged his campaign against the Ukrainian people.
The Prime Minister said he hoped Ukraine could resist and that Ukraine and its people were in the thoughts of everyone in the United Kingdom people during this dark time.
The Prime Minister is currently chairing a COBRA meeting to discuss developments in Ukraine.
Further sanctions are the likely outcome, but sanctions on their own will never deter an autocrat hell bent on having his own way. While NATO wrings it’s hands, Putin will be laughing all the way to Kyiv.
PM Boris Johnson gave an address to the nation on the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Shortly after 4 o’ clock this morning I spoke to president Zelenskyy of Ukraine to offer the continued support of the UKbecause our worst fears have now come true and all our warnings have proved tragically accurate.
President Putin of Russia has unleashed war in our European continent. He has attacked a friendly country without any provocation and without any credible excuse
Innumerable missiles and bombs have been raining down on an entirely innocent population
A vast invasion is underway by land by sea and by air.
And this is not in the infamous phrase some faraway country of which we know little
We have Ukrainian friends in this country; neighbours, co-workers
Ukraine is a country that for decades has enjoyed freedom and democracy and the right to choose its own destiny
We – and the world – cannot allow that freedom just to be snuffed out. We cannot and will not just look away.
It is because we have been so alarmed in recent months at the Russian intimidation that the UK became one of the first countries in Europe to send defensive weaponry to help the Ukrainians
Other allies have now done the same and we will do what more we can in the days ahead
Today in concert with our allies we will agree a massive package of economic sanctions designed in time to hobble the Russian economy
And to that end we must also collectively cease the dependence on Russian oil and gas that for too long has given Putin his grip on western politics
Our mission is clear – Diplomatically, politically, economically – and eventually, militarily – this hideous and barbaric venture of Vladimir Putin must end in failure.
And so I say to the people of Russia, whose president has just authorised a tidal wave of violence against a fellow Slavic people
The parents of Russian soldiers who will lose their lives.
I cannot believe this is being done in your name or that you really want the pariah status it will bring to the Putin regime
and I say to the Ukrainians in this moment of agony
we are with you we are praying for you and your families
and we are on your side
And if the months ahead are grim, and the flame of freedom burns low
I know that it will blaze bright again in Ukraine because for all his bombs and tanks and missiles I don’t believe that the Russian dictator will ever subdue the national feeling of the Ukrainians and their passionate belief that their country should be free
and I say to the British people and all who have heard the threats from Putin against those who stand with Ukraine
we will of course do everything to keep our country safe
We are joined in our outrage by friends and allies around the world
We will work with them – for however long it takes – to ensure that the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine is restored
because this act of wanton and reckless aggression is an attack not just on Ukraine
It is an attack on democracy and freedom in East Europe and around the world
This crisis is about the right of a free, sovereign independent European people to choose their own future – and that is a right that the UK will always defend.
