LABOUR told the SNP government today that the task facing Scotland’s health service is huge, as MSPs discussed NHS recovery plans.

During the Holyrood debate, opposition politicians hit out at concerning trends in mental health and cancer-screening capacity, with Scottish Labour calling for the government to go further to tackle the inequalities that existed prior to the pandemic. 

Newly appointed Health Secretary Humza Yousaf outlined the SNP’s plans to help Scotland’s health service recover following the coronavirus pandemic, putting forward a motion promising that urgent care such as cancer “will continue to be prioritised and action taken to reduce the longest waits.”

Scottish Labour’s Jackie Baillie said that the government’s decision not to use its full capacity to tackle the cancer backlog could make the difference between patients living or dying, saying there is an acute need to find missing cancer diagnoses and establish a catch-up initiative.

Labour also reiterated calls for social-care staff to receive significant pay rises, with immediate increases to £12 an hour and then to £15 by 2026 as the government talked of plans to establish a national care service.

Concerns were raised as new figures issued today by Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services show more than 2,000 young people in Scotland have now waited over a year for treatment. 

Labour said that it would work with the SNP to improve services, saying the “Scottish government simply cannot continue to fail” young people. 

The calls come amid warnings that the unveiling of an NHS infrastructure body by the SNP government cannot be allowed to become a “PR exercise.”

NHS Scotland Assure was set up to ensure newly built or refurbished buildings are designed with infection-control standards in mind, coming after lengthy delays to the opening of the Royal Hospital for Children & Young People in Edinburgh and “significant” failings in infection control at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow. 

Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said that the Scottish government must urgently confirm what safeguards will be put in place to ensure that safety concerns can’t be hidden from the public eye, warning “it is hard to see this as much more than a PR exercise.”

A vote on the debate took place after the Star went to press.