Question Time on BBC One tonight featured a debate around the NHS in Scotland and how one in three people are turning to private healtcare due to long waiting lists
A woman described how she felt she was “failed” by the NHS on two separate occasions in a poignant moment on tonight’s Question Time.
This week’s debate took place in St Andrews in Fife, Scotland with host Fiona Bruce sitting on the panel alongside Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP, Anas Sarwar MSP, Andrew Bowie MP, Thomas Kerr and Lesley Riddoch.
A large part of the BBC show tonight was centered around whether Scotland’s NHS is “dying before our eyes”. Anas Sarwar, leader Scottish labour highlighted how one in three people are forced to go private for healthcare and one audience member explained how she was part of that shocking statistic.
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The female audience member asked, “I’d just be interested to know how you measure the improvements that you’re seeing in the NHS if you’re saying that the waiting lists are going down? Is it not just because more people are going private? Just today I was getting a private surgery having been failed by the NHS twice.”
The woman, who did not disclose the nature of the surgery she needed, went on to explain how she was forced to turn to private healthcare after being “failed” by the NHS on two separate occasions.
She added: “I first got this looked at nearly 10 years ago by an NHS specialist dermatologist who didn’t think there was anything to be concerned about, I followed up again a year ago, I was told the same thing and I’m not blaming these doctors who are very pushed for time, I work in healthcare myself but then I went to see a private doctor because I am fortunate to have the means to be able to pay for private health insurance and as soon as they saw it they immediately rushed me to have it removed. But I firmly believe that healthcare should be accessible to everyone and it should be equal, but I’ve kind of been forced into this situation where I don’t want to deny myself the healthcare that I can afford but it shouldn’t be at the expense of others.”
In response Thomas Kerr, representing Reform UK, explained “too many people are going private,” and said “the NHS isn’t working in it’s current system, it does have to be looked into and it does have to be reformed”. He added: “Just throwing money at it doesn’t work, we’ve seen that time and time again, we’ve had record funding in th NHS that is still not working for people on the ground.”
When asked by Fiona if he supported the idea of a mixed economy like the French system he added: “As long as healthcare is free at the point of need for anyone who needs it then I don’t mind where someone gets their healthcare at all. If you can afford it and you want to pay it privately then that’s entirely up to a person individually.”
He went on to address the problem in Scotland of the number of doctors leaving the NHS, he said: “We have a higher tax system in Scotland which is making people who are learning in our universities like here in St Andrews are then leaving to go down to England or to go travel abroad, I think we have to look at the tax system in Scotland to make sure it is fair to try and keep our home grown talent here to make sure the NHS works.”
Mr Kerr was then grilled about Brexit by broadcaster and commentator Lesley Riddoch. She said: “Right Thomas, what happened to the £380m quid a week we were going to get from Brexit?” She went on to say: “We’ve got a bit of a mess going on with healthcare here, we’ve got a static life expectancy which is shameful given the amount of wealth there is in this country and overall our health is not great.”
Question Time has now finished for the summer, it will be back on our screens in September.