Scottish Labour is the last of the main Holyrood parties to launch its manifesto for the May elections, promising voters its priority will be ‘restarting’ the NHS with a focus on cancer services.

What is the party pledging when it comes to health and social care?

Cancer treatment and diagnosis

Scottish Labour wants to see a ‘catch-up’ initiative focused on the thousands of people who might not even know they have the disease. The party says increased staffing and processing capacity in screening centres could see the backlog cleared by the end of 2021/22. This will be supplemented by fast-track diagnosis centres in each board area, mirroring a similar pledge by the SNP. Also in the manifesto is a call for every patient to have a single NHS point of contact throughout their treatment.

Social care

The care sector has suffered from ‘years of neglect under the SNP’, the party says. While it is backing a National Care Service, Scottish Labour says ‘huge structural change’ is not desirable and instead power should be devolved, with new national contracts to set minimum standards. The most striking of these is a pledge to up care workers’ pay to £12 an hour, and then to £15 by 2026.

Scottish Labour is also promising to end all non-residential care charges and reverse the narrowing of eligibility criteria in recent decades. Under their plans, self-directed support will remain ‘at the centre’.

Unpaid carers

The party is calling for a ‘comprehensive support strategy’ for unpaid carers. This would feature more entitlement to short breaks, employment support and independent advocacy. On benefits, Scottish Labour wants to replace the Carer’s Allowance with a higher Minimum Income Guarantee.

Primary care and community

The party suggests it is backing what would be one of the biggest overhauls to general practice since the founding of the NHS. It says GP services – which are currently run as independent contractors – should be transitioned ‘into a fully integrated NHS’. The party told healthandcare.scot this would be a gradual process, accelerating a trend of health boards taking over practices, rather than a rapid change.

Other undertakings include more investment in multidisciplinary teams and a move to 15-minute appointments. For dentistry, Labour says a comprehensive overhaul is needed and options ‘other than the small business model’ should be explored. After a study published yesterday found Hospital at Home was an effective alternative to admission, the party says the service should rolled out nationally.

Working conditions

Alongside better rest facilities, mental health support and pay, the party says that it would increase places for Scottish medical and nursing students, boost bursary schemes and introduce ‘minimum student intakes and training places’ for key health professionals. Meanwhile staff who are set to retire will be offered more flexible working options to improve retention.

Lessons from the NHS Louisa Jordan should be applied to catching up on the elective care backlog, Scottish Labour says. The idea is for each major hospital to have an elective care centre to cut waiting lists and ‘cut the expensive over-reliance on the private sector.’

Medicines and prescribing

The manifesto includes a pledge to set up a new health board responsible for drugs procurement, to ‘increase the public scrutiny and control of the medicines and treatments available’. The party says more action is needed to improve the digitisation of patient records, data-sharing and e-prescribing.

Rehab

Scottish Labour is backing a ‘right to rehab’ for people with long-term conditions, as well as a network of long covid clinics.

Disabilities

The manifesto says an Autism and Learning Disability Commissioner should be introduced to ‘champion the human rights’ of these groups. It also says that neurological services need to strengthened and more support should be provided to people who lose their sight, claiming that just two of the ten  people who lose their sight every day are offered support.  

Gender identity

Scottish Labour wants to see a new 18-week referral to first appointment target for Gender Identity Clinics, in line with other NHS services. People would also have the right to self-refer to GICs in all health boards, while an inquiry would be set up to explore an “informed consent” model of treatment. This follows a court ruling in England that under-16s were unlikely to be able to give consent for puberty-blocking drugs.

End of life care

Scottish Labour’s manifesto commits to improving funding for hospice services, including in the community, as well as increased access to bereavement support. This would see new legislation giving carers more rights to cash support, training and education if the person they are caring for dies.

Mental health

A raft of measures is set out to improve mental health services, including pledges to support mental health of new mothers, a “no wrong door” approach to reduce rejected referrals and a mental health worker in every GP practice by 2026. The party is backing a revamp of the mental health strategy to foster better links between education, social work, NHS, and the voluntary sector to focus on relationships with young people. Meanwhile every health board should have a mental health worker in every emergency department and spending should be increased to 11% of the health budget.

Public health

The manifesto pledges further action to reduce alcohol consumption, funded by a social responsibility levy on alcohol sales. The party is backing safe drug consumption rooms, alongside expanded community services.

Also promised is a Mesh Charter, a patient safety commissioner and the reimbursement of women who have had to pay for mesh-related treatment in the private sector. There are further commitments on the elimination of HIV and Hepatitis C, childhood obesity and loneliness.

 

Read more: Manifesto health check: the Scottish Conservatives; Manifesto health check: the Lib Dems; Manifesto health check: the SNP; Manifesto health check: the Scottish Greens

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