Labour health minister attacks SNP over NHS Scotland app
READ MORE
The app — which, according to Freedom of Information requests, the Scottish Government had spent £5.65 million on by March this year — is expected to include access to both health and social care data and services.
Last week, Mr Streeting launched plans to give patients in England a 'doctor in your pocket' as he announced improvements to the country's NHS app, which already has 35 million users.
John Swinney at the Royal Highland ShowThe app currently allows patients to book GP appointments, order prescriptions and manage hospital visits.
Mr Streeting said the lack of a national app in Scotland showed why the country 'can't afford a third decade of the SNP'.
He said: 'The UK Labour Government is embracing technology to deliver a better NHS for patients and their families, giving them more control and transparency over their treatment.
'In John Swinney, the SNP have an analogue politician in a digital age, and patients in Scotland are missing out.
'The SNP have record funding and complete control of the NHS in Scotland. There's no excuses for this, and it just shows why Scotland can't afford a third decade of the SNP and needs a new direction with Anas Sarwar as First Minister.'
The Scottish Government has been approached for comment.
Mr Swinney confirmed plans for the launch of the app in a speech on improving public services and NHS renewal at the National Robotarium in Edinburgh in January.
He said: 'As a much-needed addition to improve patients' interaction with the NHS, there will be a Scottish health and social care app.
'This Digital Front Door will begin rollout from the end of this year, starting in Lanarkshire, and, over time, it will become an ever more central, ever more important access and management point for care in Scotland.'
READ MORE
Meanwhile, the UK Government has said £5.8 billion of the £9.1bn uplift to the Scottish budget over the next three years will come from increased health spending.
A breakdown published on Monday shows the biggest share of new funding comes via the Barnett formula as a result of health investment in England.
While the Scottish Government can allocate money as it sees fit, ministers have repeatedly said they will pass on health-related increases to NHS Scotland.
Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said the settlement marked 'the largest real terms settlement for the Scottish Government since devolution'.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Three former bosses at hospital where Lucy Letby worked are arrested for gross negligence manslaughter
Three former bosses at the hospital where Lucy Letby murdered babies have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter, Cheshire Police announced today. The senior executives, who worked at the Countess of Chester Hospital during the neo-natal nurse's killing spree, were quizzed by detectives yesterday after being invited to attend separate police stations across Cheshire. They have since been bailed pending further enquiries. Their arrests form part of Cheshire Constabulary's ongoing inquiry into corporate manslaughter at the NHS Trust, where Letby murdered seven premature infants and harmed seven more between June 2015 and June 2016. In March, Detective Superintendent Paul Hughes, confirmed the corporate manslaughter investigation, codenamed Operation Duet, had been widened to include 'the grossly negligent action or inaction of individuals.' He said 'those identified as suspects had been notified' but refused to confirm any names. The Mail is aware of the identities of those arrested but is not naming individuals. Letby, 35, is serving 15 whole-life orders after being found guilty of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, at the hospital's neo-natal unit. She has twice had applications to challenge her convictions rejected by the Court of Appeal. The Trial of Lucy Letby: The Inquiry Listen and follow on Spotify and Apple Podcasts now. According to an independent report, leaked to the Mail's Trial+ podcast, in March, babies' lives could have been saved if hospital bosses had acted sooner to remove Lucy Letby from working. The report, commissioned by the Countess after Letby was first arrested, in July 2018, found managers were 'inexperienced' and missed 14 opportunities to suspend the nurse because they became 'blinkered' to the possibility she was responsible. Instead of alerting the police, they commissioned a series of ineffectual external investigations, which failed to get to the bottom of why babies were unexpectedly collapsing and dying, the document said. Executives also 'ostracised' and 'bullied' doctors when they continued to raise concerns and demand police be called in, the report, carried out by independent healthcare consultancy Facere Melius, which has been blocked from publication, concluded. Although the report does not specifically reveal which babies might have lived, it makes clear that, by February 2016, at least two senior executives at the hospital knew about the link between Letby and the infant deaths. She tried to kill four children, Babies K, L, M and N, and murdered two triplet brothers, Babies O and P, before being removed from frontline nursing in July that year. 'Earlier action potentially would have reduced the number of baby deaths,' the report said. 'Had different decisions been made the spike in baby deaths would have been picked up sooner internally and externally, and potentially, lives could have been saved.' At the recent public inquiry, which is investigating Letby's crimes, senior management at the hospital faced serious criticism over their handling of the spike in deaths. In their closing speeches, in March, lawyers for the infants' families, accused executives of orchestrating a cover up to protect the reputation of the hospital, lying to the families and bullying the consultants who tried to raise the alarm. Peter Skelton KC, who represents seven of Letby's victims, said they displayed 'a form of individual and corporate self-protection that should have no place in the NHS.' Kate Blackwell KC, for the senior executives, said in her closing remarks that they now accepted they should have called in police sooner, but the barrister insisted it was never expressed to them in 'stark' terms that Letby was causing deliberate harm before June 2016 – when she attacked and murdered Babies O and P and was finally moved from frontline nursing into an administrative role. Ms Blackwell said managers accepted they had failed to follow safeguarding policies, made mistakes in their communication with the babies' parents and that there was a breakdown in their relationship with the paediatricians, who should have been better supported. But she insisted all their decisions were taken 'in good faith' and they 'vociferously denied' claims they deliberately and knowingly 'harboured' a murderer or put the hospital's reputation before the safety of babies in their care. 'The senior managers have emphatically refuted the proposition that either their own reputation or that of the Trust was prioritised over safety,' she added. In law, an individual can be found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter if they negligently breach the duty of care they owe the person who died and it was 'reasonably foreseeable' that such a breach gave rise to a 'serious and obvious risk of death.' The circumstances of the breach also have to be 'truly exceptionally bad and so reprehensible' that it amounts to gross negligence. Neonatologist Professor Neena Modi, Letby's barrister Mark McDonald, Sir David Davis MP and retired medic Dr Shoo Lee, during a press conference to announce 'new medical evidence' which they say casts doubts on her convictions Mr Hughes, senior investigating officer for Operation Duet, said: 'As part of our ongoing enquiries, on Monday 30th June three individuals who were part of the senior leadership team at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2015-2016, were arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter. 'All three have subsequently been bailed pending further enquiries. 'Both the corporate manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter elements of the investigation are continuing and there are no set timescales for these.' He added that today's development does 'not impact on the convictions of Lucy Letby for multiple offences of murder and attempted murder.' 'Our investigation into the deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the neo-natal units of both the Countess of Chester Hospital and the Liverpool Women's Hospital between the period of 2012 to 2016 is also ongoing.' Letby, of Hereford, has always maintained she is innocent and in April her new defence team submitted evidence from a panel of international experts to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the organisation that examines miscarriages of justice, in a bid to have her convictions overturned. The experts claim no murders took place and instead assert that the babies died or collapsed because of natural causes or poor care. Following the announcement of the arrests, Mark McDonald, Letby's new defence barrister, called for another inquiry into the 'failings of the neonatal and paediatric medical care unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital.' 'Yet another press release from the police at a very sensitive time when the CCRC are looking at the case of Lucy Letby,' Mr McDonald said. 'Despite this the concerns many have raised will not go away, and we will continue to publicly discuss them. 'The reality is that 26 internationally renowned experts have looked at this case and the lead expert has concluded that no crime was committed, no babies were murdered. What is needed is a proper and full public inquiry into the failings of the neonatal and paediatric medical care unit at the Countess of Chester hospital.'
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Doctors' strike could break the NHS, claims Streeting
Resident doctors have announced a five-day strike commencing on 25 July, following a ballot by the British Medical Association. The industrial action is in pursuit of a 29 per cent pay rise, which doctors claim is necessary to address pay erosion since 2008-09, after rejecting a 5.4 per cent offer. The strike is expected to result in the cancellation of tens of thousands of operations and appointments, further impacting NHS waiting lists. Health Secretary Wes Streeting has urged doctors to call off the strikes, warning that the NHS recovery is 'hanging by a thread' and accusing the BMA of threatening it. Health leaders have criticised the short notice of the strike, deeming it unfair to patients, while the BMA stated they had 'no choice' but to strike due to the government's stance on pay.
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Doctors need to work with the NHS, not against it
Resident doctors have a strong case for a generous pay rise. Their average pay has fallen by one-fifth since 2008, taking inflation into account, even after last year's 5.4 per cent rise. But to demand a 29 per cent increase, and to rush into a strike ballot to support it, is a counterproductive and damaging tactic. Last year, they secured a better deal than most public-sector workers, and there were no strings attached requiring more efficient working practices. They should believe Wes Streeting when he tells them: 'You will not find another health and social care secretary as sympathetic to resident [formerly junior] doctors as me.' Mr Streeting secured a funding settlement for the NHS over the next four years that is generous compared with other departments. But a real-terms increase of 3 per cent a year is only around the long-run historical average. It is half the rate achieved in the New Labour years. So there is no scope for utopian pay settlements (such as the excessively generous GP contracts negotiated in Tony Blair's time). If the British Medical Association, the doctors' trade union, really wanted to promote the interest of its members, it would work with Mr Streeting to plot a gradual real increase in doctors' pay over the next few years allied to a plan to modernise the NHS and increase health service productivity. Instead, it is seeking to repel public opinion with the threat of another round of strikes in pursuit of a pay claim that most reasonable people regard as pie in the sky. Already public opinion is narrowly opposed to doctors being allowed to go on strike at all (opposed by 49 per cent to 44 per cent, according to YouGov), but the one thing that will ensure that the doctors lack public support is the demand for such an unrealistic increase. Of course, it is only the opening bid in a negotiation – but this is a negotiation with public opinion as much as it is with Mr Streeting. The BMA is pleased, as militant trade unions usually are, with the 'resounding majority' in favour of strike action in its ballot: 90 per cent certainly looks like an impressive mandate. But the turnout for that ballot was only 55 per cent, which means that just fewer than half of those eligible to vote supported strikes – a less than 'resounding' margin. This is not how the allocation of resources in a public health service should be decided. The idea that one NHS interest group should use its old-fashioned, Seventies-style industrial muscle to secure a larger share of a limited budget is one that belongs in the past. The very idea of the NHS is in danger. Years of Conservative underfunding have weakened it to the point that many younger people have become used to paying for private GPs and minor procedures. If the waiting lists left over from the coronavirus cannot be cleared, support for the idea of social insurance systems such as those formerly advocated by Nigel Farage will grow. Perhaps they should. Continental Europe seems to do well enough without a universal tax-funded model such as the NHS. But that is not what the BMA purports to believe. It believes in an NHS free at the point of need. And if its members believe that too, they should drop the threat of strikes and work with Mr Streeting to modernise the NHS and make it work.
