In Scotland, much attention is required by the SNP Government to sort out key challenges in our NHS that are causing huge amounts of distress to people seeking medical assistance.
Our ambulance service has been left in a state of crisis and people in urgent need of medical attention are being forced to wait far too long for potentially life-saving treatment.
In recent weeks, it has been revealed that the average ambulance waiting time in Scotland after someone has dialled 999 stands at six hours.
That is both shocking and unacceptable.
The SNP has allowed ambulance waiting times to reach breaking point and Scottish Conservative Leader, Douglas Ross has rightly highlighted this issue at the last two First Minister’s Questions.
The target response time for health complaints deemed to present a threat to someone’s life is meant to be seven minutes but this is clearly not happening at the moment.
Despite this thoroughly distressing situation, no new finance was allocated for the Scottish Ambulance Service in the recent Programme for Government at Holyrood and last week, the Health Secretary Humza Yousaf agreed with the statement that people should “think twice” before phoning 999.
This sort of messaging from Mr Yousaf is reckless and could have the impact of putting lives at risk if people who have suffered conditions such as a heart attack or stroke decide not to call for an ambulance because the individual in charge of running Scotland’s NHS has made them feel guilty about seeking urgent medical support.
The extreme difficulties in our ambulance service demands action now and Scottish Conservatives are supporting calls from the Unite union to bring in the Armed Forces and to declare a major incident status.
The ambulance service is not the only part of the NHS in crisis with record A&E waiting times and considerable delays to in-person GP appointments.
In response to the latter, Scottish Conservatives held an opposition time debate and vote at the Scottish Parliament last week, calling on the SNP to put in place a target date for the return of normal GP services.
In Scotland, thousands of people have been finding it incredibly challenging to gain access to already overwhelmed GP services and the difficulties have been particularly problematic for individuals looking to secure an in-person GP appointment.
Scottish Conservatives do not believe that remote video consultations should become the standard practice for appointments if a patient requires a face-to-face medical consultation.
Regrettably, our motion did not gain majority support amongst MSP’s and an SNP amendment with no mention of setting a target timescale for resuming normal GP services was approved.
The practical impact of the SNP refusing to support our calls for a target date and to urgently increase the amount of face-to-face medical consultations taking place with a GP is that many people living with very serious health problems will not have their conditions diagnosed and in consequence, required medical treatment will not be forthcoming.
Scottish Conservatives will continue to hold the SNP to account on behalf of patients who require to see their GP for a face-to-face appointment.