Letters / It’s her day job
In the Lib Dem ‘newspaper’ that has just dropped through my letter box, I was astounded to read this comment about local NHS services from their candidate Emma Macdonald: “Fixing the NHS must be the top priority” she says.
Yes, the same Emma Macdonald who is the leader of the council, which has joint responsibility with NHS Shetland for providing health and social care in the islands.
She doesn’t mention that the Scottish Government now gives her Integrated Joint Board over £90m a year to provide these services.
She stays focused on shifting the blame: “… Health Boards … have been stretched to breaking point by the Scottish Government.”
NHS services UK-wide are under the same pressures, exacerbated in England by her party’s coalition support for involving the private sector in the NHS. That tells you how the LibDems would run the NHS here, if they ever got the (unlikely) chance!
If there are problems with how the NHS operates here in Shetland, then the buck stops with Emma. After all, that’s been her day job for the past three years!
Fiona Morton Cluness
Sand
