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  • 2 days ago
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00:00In a hundred days time, Scotland faces a choice.
00:04The most significant...
00:05The most significant choice it's had to make in 20 years.
00:09And in a hundred days...
00:10In a hundred days time, we can save our most precious and treasured National Health Service.
00:15A hundred days to take our country in a different direction.
00:20A hundred days to give hope back to the people of this great country.
00:25We have a plan to fix our NHS and make it fit for the future.
00:29But above all...
00:30We want to take our NHS out of the hands of incompetent...
00:35Ministers and bureaucrats and managers and put it back in the hands of...
00:40The people it truly belongs to.
00:42The patients, the doctors and the...
00:45This election won't decide what happens somewhere else.
00:50It'll decide what happens here in Scotland.
00:52It'll decide what happens to our schools.
00:55Our hospitals, our GP services, our social care system, our families, our communities...
01:00Our towns, our cities, our villages and our islands.
01:04This election...
01:05This election is about our NHS.
01:07And for any other political party...
01:10Or any other political leader...
01:12Including the sitting First Minister John Swinney and the SNP...
01:15They want to make this election about everything but Scotland.
01:18But I am determined to make it...
01:20And who can blame them for wanting to talk about anything else apart from...
01:25Their record.
01:26On their watch, more than 830,000 Scots...
01:30Waiting either for treatment or for diagnosis.
01:33Including almost 10,000...
01:35Waiting over two years.
01:37Over two years.
01:38Over two years.
01:39On an NHS.
01:40Waiting over two years.
01:41That's 53 times higher than the number in England.
01:45Despite them having 10 times the size of population we do.
01:50It means for all those thousands of people who wait far too long at A&E and when the Royal...
01:55College of Emergency Medicine tell us that that leads to unnecessary deaths in the future.
02:00To all those people that are stuck in hospital.
02:03Desperate to get out.
02:04Cleared...
02:05Desperate to leave.
02:06But can't.
02:07Because they can't access that care package either at home...
02:10Or indeed any care home.
02:12For all those who've had to remortgage their homes...
02:15Borrow from friends and family.
02:16Or have had to travel elsewhere.
02:18To get the private diagnosis of the...
02:20Private treatment.
02:21When they should be getting that here at home.
02:24Those waiting...
02:25In pain.
02:26In anxiety.
02:27And putting their lives on hold.
02:29And all the...
02:30Personal consequence that has on their health.
02:32But also on their economic opportunity.
02:34And indeed.
02:35On their friends.
02:36And family.
02:37That's the record of shame.
02:39For the SNP.
02:40We...
02:41That's the record of failure.
02:42And that's one that we want to stop.
02:44And take our...
02:45The NHS.
02:46Into the future.
02:47Now people often say.
02:48That all hope...
02:50Has gone.
02:51The NHS can never be fixed.
02:52It's always going to be broken.
02:53It can't go back.
02:54To those...
02:55Founding principles.
02:56I reject that out of hand.
02:58Our NHS can work.
03:00Our NHS can be fit.
03:02For the future.
03:03Our NHS can deliver.
03:04For...
03:05Not everyone.
03:06The way it should.
03:07But what we need.
03:08Is a government that meets the ambition of the people.
03:10And works as hard as our NHS staff do.
03:13If we are to make it a reality.
03:15So what will Scottish Labour do to fix it?
03:18First we will declare that...
03:20National waiting times emergency.
03:22To make sure patients can receive the care they need.
03:24Regarding...
03:25Regardless of where it is available across the country.
03:28We will also make sure we take...
03:30The capacity.
03:31Wherever it exists.
03:32So we can clear those backlogs.
03:33And so people don't have to use...
03:35Their own money.
03:36To get the treatment they need.
03:37We will reform primary care.
03:40To end the ATM rush.
03:41For a GP appointment.
03:43And we will bring back...
03:44The family.
03:45To the doctor.
03:46We will end corridor care.
03:47And stop all the bed blocking.
03:49By making sure...
03:50we invest in social care and the pathways that people need to get those care packages at home.
03:55Or indeed to have that place in a care home.
04:16Now that does two things.
04:17One, of course, it gives better dignity and care.
04:20But it also releases those police officers so they're not stuck in any part.
04:25They're not stuck in courtrooms.
04:26They're not stuck responding to 999 calls.
04:29Instead, they're on...
04:30They're on the front line, supporting their communities and fighting crime.
04:34And ultimately...
04:35We will cut the bureaucracy so we've got fewer chief executives, fewer finance...
04:40directors, fewer managers and more nurses and more doctors on the front line.
04:45Fewer bureaucrats who think their job is to stand up and defend the government...
04:50that conspire against the patient and more money to the doctors and the nurses that treat the patient.
04:55And better outcomes for people across the country.
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