Nicola Sturgeon will today announce a £200 million investment in the NHS to establish a network of treatment centres for elderly people.
The first minister will launch the initiative during her keynote speech to the SNP conference in Aberdeen, underlining the party’s claim to be the defender of the NHS. The same message was a key component of the party’s policy platform when it swept to victory in Scotland in May’s general election.
Ms Sturgeon will claim that she is making the NHS “fit for the future” by configuring services to meet the needs of an ageing population.
Specifically, she will outline plans for elective surgery centres based on services at the Golden Jubilee national hospital in Clydebank.
The five new facilities will enable people to have hip and knee operations, as well as laser treatment for cataracts.
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The first minister is expected to say: “As more people live longer into old age, more and more of these operations will need to be done. If we don’t prepare now for ten and twenty years ahead, our NHS will be overwhelmed by the demand. So we will act.”
The new centres will be located at St John’s Hospital in Livingston, the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, Raigmore Hospital, Inverness and at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
The announcement comes after intensive lobbying from health service campaigners, who claim that governments north and south of the border must act to ease the pressure on accident and emergency departments, and also to alleviate the problem of “bed blocking”.
In a succession of interventions, the BMA, the medical royal colleges and the Royal College of Nursing have called for a realignment of primary care services, with more community-based and specialist facilities, to meet the changing needs of the population.
Ms Sturgeon will attempt to address these concerns, committing the new funds over the term of the next Scottish parliament.
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“Changing demographics will demand new ways of thinking and new ways of working right across our society — but especially in our NHS,” she will say, adding: “A few weeks ago, I set out our plans to transform primary care, so that more people can be cared for in the community. That is vital, but we must reshape our acute care system too.”
Party strategists believe that an appeal to older people will prove popular with a section of the population that has proved most resistant to the SNP’s core message of independence.
However, the first minister will also pitch a very personal message for support, attempting to capitalise both on her own opinion poll ratings, and her experience in comparison with her closest rival, Kezia Dugdale, the newly-elected leader of Scottish Labour.
Ms Sturgeon will say: “The choice at any election is about more than individual policies. It’s about who you trust most — as your government and as your first minister — to provide the experience, the leadership, the ambition, the character and the unity of purpose to lead this country forward with confidence. To the people of Scotland I ask this: trust us — trust me — to always do the best for you.”
She will promise that the SNP “will always strive to be the best that we can be” and say: “We will serve this country with imagination, courage, humility and always to the very best of our abilities.”