Doctors accuse visiting health secretary of dodging A&E

Senior doctors at a flagship NHS hospital have accused the health secretary of avoiding their over-stretched departments during a visit.

Emergency medical consultant Ross Moy criticised Humza Yousaf after his trip to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow on Tuesday.

Moy – an expert in critical care and pre-hospital medicine – said Yousaf should have come to his ward which was struggling to cope with no resuscitation room to accept patients and sick people spending hours waiting on trolleys.

He posted online: “It’s a shame that Humza Yousaf was unable to find time while on the site to visit the emergency department. At the time, I was managing a department entirely full of patients awaiting inpatient beds, and with 12 ambulances queuing outside.

“At times, we had no resuscitation room space to accept patients. Frail people spent many hours waiting on ambulance trolleys. As a result, we were unable to deliver our core functions of immediate management of sick and injured patients.”

It’s a shame that @HumzaYousaf was unable to find time while on the site to visit the QEUH ED.

At the time of his visit, I was managing a department entirely full of patients awaiting inpatient beds, and with 12 ambulances queuing outside. https://t.co/7oezBpyDYR

— Ross Moy 🕷 (@ross_moy) October 12, 2022

Other senior medical staff also criticised Yousaf. Robert Docking, consultant in critical care and anaesthesia, highlighted the politician’s previous suggestions that hospitals and staff could do more to ease the crisis: “If I’d used a primetime news appearance to tell frontline staff to pull their thumbs out and work harder, I’d hope I’d have the humanity to go and see them in person and explain?”

The criticism came days after Yousaf told Royal College of Nursing members “let’s not patronise each other” as he spoke with some, currently voting on strike action over pay, protesting outside the SNP conference in Aberdeen. Lailah Peel, deputy chair of the British Medical Association Scotland, said: “Instead of photo opportunities which do little to help frontline staff, it is clear we need urgent action to tackle staff shortages and ensure that doctors remain in the NHS to ease the crises we face.”

Lobbying group Doctors’ Association UK said NHS staff were struggling across the board with co-chair Dr Ellen Welch adding: “Politicians who single out NHS staff ‘to blame’ for this should seriously reconsider their viewpoint and start focusing on the actual reasons for the current climate – chronic underfunding of services, substandard pay, working conditions and the knock-on effects of a pandemic.”

Conservative Shadow Health Secretary Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: “Humza Yousaf needs to learn that he cannot just pick and choose the parts of our NHS that make him look good and ignore the rest.”

Jackie Baillie, Labour’s health spokeswoman said: “Services are at breaking point and these dedicated workers are exhausted after being bounced from one crisis to another. This snub from the health secretary adds insult to injury.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “Humza Yousaf’s NHS statement was substance-free and out of touch. Patients and staff need new hope now.”

The Scottish Government said: “To support the healthcare system, we are recruiting 1,000 new NHS staff, including 750 frontline nurses from overseas. Our £50 million Urgent and Unscheduled Care Collaborative looks to help improve A&E performance by offering alternative routes to care.

“The pressures experienced by A&E are driven by delays in discharge elsewhere in our hospitals. That’s why a focus of our winter plan is on social care and actions to encourage integration authorities to help alleviate these delays.”