South Scotland Labour MSP Colin Smyth has revealed that over 15% of cancelled operations in NHS Dumfries and Galloway didn’t go ahead because hospitals simply could not cope.

Lastest figures published by the Scottish Government’s own Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland that 21 operations were cancelled in May 2019 due to non-clinical reasons such as not having enough staff or unclean equipment. This meant that 15.9% of all cancelled operations in May 2019 because hospital in the region did not have enough resources to cope.

Colin Smyth MSP says the figures show our NHS is simply not getting enough resources from the SNP government.

Colin Smyth said;

“There will be occasions when for medical reasons it is correct to delay a patients operation. But with over 15% of cancellations across Dumfries and Galloway due to non-medical reasons such as a lack of staff, it’s clear that the Scottish Government are underfunding our NHS.

Behind each of these figures is a patient waiting in pain for treatment that hospitals have not been able to give.  We have seen a staffing crisis develop in our health service, with huge unfilled gaps for consultants, nurses and midwives.

It’s time to use the powers of the Scottish Parliament to properly fund our NHS.”