Scotland’s Health Secretary met with A&E staff and management at Wishaw General where he received a “blunt” reminder of the pressure they are currently under.
Humza Yousaf’s visit came as it was revealed that the number of people seen within the four-hour time standard set by the Scottish Government had again dropped to a record low in NHS Lanarkshire.
He told Lanarkshire Live : “I’m under no illusion just how pressured the system is.
"It’s incumbent on me and the government as a whole to come up with some sort of solution to resolve and mitigate some of those pressures, particularly at a time as we enter winter.”
Among those he met was Dr John Harden, deputy national clinical director and clinician at Wishaw General, who told us staff there were "realistic" about the challenges ahead, saying winter is "always hard".
However, he had a warning, adding: "But this winter is hard before the winter - we’re expecting it to be tougher.
"It’s reassuring that the cabinet secretary is taking the time to come and see and hear, warts and all. The team here have been blunt with him and explained what the pressures and problems in their eyes are.
"He has listened.
“I come in and see my colleagues under significant pressure and the stress is huge.
"They are trying to do a job they would normally enjoy but the pressures of lack of flow in the system is impacting significantly on their ability to do the best they can.
"They are trying very hard to do their best and prioritising those who really need to be seen as soon as possible.
"Unfortunately that means some people have to wait a bit longer but that is people who are able to wait a bit longer.”
The cabinet secretary met with frontline staff just hours before the result of a ballot for strike action by nurses’ union RCN (Royal College of Nursing) was due to be announced.
He told Lanarkshire Live his government were "disappointed" that a record pay deal had been rejected, but hoped strike action could still be averted.
He continued: “In terms of more money and more resource, John Swinney made it clear and I’ve made it clear that we’ve had to make really difficult decisions to get to almost half-a-billion pounds on the table for a pay deal.
"That’s taking money, re-profiling money from primary care, mental health - these are really difficult decisions.
"This is a UK-wide strike and we need more money from the UK Government as we have no more money. We need them to put their hands in their pocket.
“The nature of the problem we’re facing here is one that is caused predominantly by the UK Government’s mismanagement of the economy. There’s no doubt about it.
"My budget is worth £650m less just due to inflation. Add to that the pay offer we’ve had to make is way in excess of what we budgeted for.”
There have been calls from political rivals for the Health Minister to resign, he responded by saying: “This is an issue that’s far bigger than any one individual and those that try to make it that are doing a disservice to those on the frontline.
“To make this about an individual or a particular political party is missing the point. The point is we’ve had the biggest shock the NHS has ever faced in its 74 years of existence.
"What we’re focused on and what I’m focused on is what can we do to get through this winter.
"Simply changing people around or even changing a political party is not going to be an immediate solution.”
The health minister said he was in regular discussions with Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and insisted he maintains her backing.
He took a swipe at Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer when quizzed on what could be done to ease the struggle to recruit new staff into the NHS.
He said: “Getting a pay deal that is hopefully acceptable to staff will help with recruitment and retention, in terms of student nursing intake we’ve increased it over the last decade.
"We need a three-prong strategy; the graduate pipeline - to make sure we have enough nurses, midwives and medical staff in the future; the second prong is international recruitment.
"I take a fair bit of exception to the comments made by Keir Starmer about overseas workers, recruiting international workers has got to be part of our strategy; and the third prong is recruiting domestically and across the common travel area.”
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