A new Scottish Labour government would engage with general practice leaders in the first 100-days to improve contracts and make the role more attractive is a key priority according to Scottish Labour health spokesperson Jackie Baillie.

Ms Baillie told the Scottish Labour conference the party will “renegotiate the GP contract so it delivers for patients and GPs” and end the 8am rush for appointments, despite this stemming from a UK Labour policy.

This, Ms Baillie said, will ensure anyone who needs to can be seen within 48 hours.

She told the ‘Building a sustainable health and social care workforce’ session that, if elected next May, delivering for the workforce and particularly primary care will come first among party priorities.

These priorities also include tackling waiting times, shifting the balance of care to the community and reforming social care through investment and cross-governmental working.

Ms Baille said:

“We’ll start GP contract negotiations within the first 100 days, but if we’re going to realise our ambition for urgent contact with the GP – we need to grow that GP workforce. There’s less of them with more patients to deal with. This is not sustainable in primary care, we need to fix that.

“Not enough medical students choose GP – we need to look at how we influence the generation coming through to choose general practice, because it will be exciting. That’s where the money is going to go and I’m giving them notice now.”

Warm words or action?

Fellow panel members representing nursing, medical, physiotherapy and social work staff at the Scottish Labour conference session voiced their concerns about delivery.

Colin Poolman Royal College of Nursing Scotland Director said the workforce has many of the solutions and members are “sick and fed up” of “warm words” and want real action.

BMA Scotland’s Chair added that GPs are also “frustrated” by poor access for patients to hospital and care support, and said proposals must be accompanied by investment and cross-party working.

Meanwhile, Scottish Association for Social Work’s Director Alison Bavidge warned against short-term “performative” policies that will make little difference to the workforce and public in the long term.

Ms Baillie acknowledged the need to “be honest” about the scale of the challenge and the need to move beyond words to action, telling the panel:

“We can’t hang about, we need to make changes – in social care, social work and the NHS because it is an integrated system.

“We’re not just committed to saying reform, we know we need to do it.”

Scottish Labour also restated their ambitions for a ‘clinician-led’ revolution of the NHS with a clinical council and to reduce NHS Scotland health boards to just three.

Heeding BMA Scotland Chair Dr Iain Kennedy’s warning that these plans not “centralise” decision-making and must be accompanied by work to deliver a culture change across the NHS, Ms Baillie said Scottish Labour will drive decision-making further down to a local level.

Paying for the NHS

While not providing detail on Scottish Labour’s investment plans for healthcare, Ms Baillie promised that Scottish Labour will “fix the NHS” in her conference speech, adding:

“We will always, always – keep our NHS free at the point of need.

“Everyone in Scotland knows someone who has had to turn to private healthcare –raided their savings; families have stepped up to pay for their loved ones – all because they cannot get the treatment they need on the NHS.”

She said Scottish Labour will introduce a “bold and ambitions plan” to cut waiting lists and transform primary care.

A waiting times emergency

Echoing this urgency, party leader Anas Sarwar MSP said he would “declare a national waiting times emergency and do whatever it takes to fix the NHS” as First Minister.

Mr Sarwar said Scottish Labour’s vision for change will “ensure patients are seen based on needs, not an outdated postcode lottery or their ability to pay”, adding:

“To deal with this national emergency we will use capacity wherever it is – even if it means travelling to other parts of the country or using private sector capacity to save lives.”

Mention of private sector use echoes UK government plans to increase reliance on the independent sector – met by warnings from health leaders who say it “must be time-limited” and cannot replace a longer-term, credible plan to increase NHS capacity.

Despite criticising the current government for “shattering” the NHS, he also told attendees he would keep both free prescriptions and the Scottish Child Payment – two measures that diverge from UK government policy.

While NHS Scotland and the Scottish government have recently confirmed they are “open” to private help on waiting backlogs, they emphasised this is not a long-term plan.

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