{"id":261262,"date":"2025-11-13T22:35:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T22:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/261262\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T22:35:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T22:35:06","slug":"neil-gray-announces-nhs-winter-plan-amid-h3n2-flu-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/261262\/","title":{"rendered":"Neil Gray announces NHS winter plan amid H3N2 flu fears"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Addressing Holyrood<\/a>, Mr Gray set out measures he said would strengthen the system\u2019s resilience, including the recruitment of more than 290 new frontline ambulance staff, the creation of new sub-national planning structures across the East and West of Scotland, and a \u00a320 million fund to bolster social care capacity.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cInvesting in social care is not only the right thing to do but it will help reduce hospital admissions and ultimately relieve some pressure on our NHS acute services,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

\n The Health Secretary said the NHS and social care sector had been preparing for winter since last year, publishing local plans underpinned by national principles.\n<\/p>\n

\n He said lessons learned from previous winters had shaped the government\u2019s National Planning Priorities and Principles for Surge and Winter Preparedness in Health and Social Care, designed to ensure consistency across Scotland while giving local services flexibility to respond to pressures.\n<\/p>\n

\n Mr Gray told MSPs that ongoing reforms and investment were beginning to deliver results.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWaits, particularly those waiting over a year, are coming down consistently for the fourth month in a row,\u201d he said. \u201cOur NHS is turning a corner and delivering tangible improvements.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n READ MORE:\n<\/p>\n

\n As part of the government\u2019s plan, the Scottish Ambulance Service<\/a> will recruit 290 new A&E staff, including paramedics and care assistants, and NHS boards will work more collaboratively under two new regional structures, one covering the East and one the West of Scotland.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis will see us optimise the capacity in our system,\u201d Mr Gray said, adding that while health board boundaries would remain, there would be \u201ca new expectation about structured sub-national planning and delivery\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\n He said the new model would help ensure people across Scotland, including those in rural and island communities, received the same high-quality care.\n<\/p>\n

\n Turning to social care, Mr Gray confirmed \u00a320 million in social care funding to expand capacity and strengthen resilience in areas of highest need.\n<\/p>\n

\n He also announced plans to publish a comprehensive progress report at the end of the parliamentary term, detailing advances under the government\u2019s Operational Improvement Plan, Service Renewal Framework and Population Health Framework.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhile I have outlined some of the real progress we have made so far, I am committed to providing a more comprehensive report for the end of this parliamentary session,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

\n However, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland said the statement failed to address the growing problem of \u201ccorridor care\u201d – where patients are treated in inappropriate settings due to overcrowding.\n<\/p>\n

\n In a statement, the union said the winter plan runs the risk of “tinkering around the edges\u201d of deeper systemic issues and \u201clacks the urgency to make a real difference for patients and staff in the coming weeks and months.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n It warned that hospital overcrowding and delayed discharges had persisted throughout the summer, with over 30% of A&E patients waiting longer than four hours and around 2,000 people unable to leave hospital due to delays in care packages.\n<\/p>\n

\n Colin Poolman, Executive Director of RCN Scotland, said: \u201cThe Cabinet Secretary\u2019s statement feels like too little, too late. Care in inappropriate places has been allowed to become normal practice, despite the Scottish Government<\/a>\u2019s commitment \u2018to eliminate non-standard care areas\u2019. Every time it happens, patients are put at unnecessary risk and robbed of their dignity.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cOur members are wondering why a statement on winter preparedness is being made this late in the year\u2026 The situation is completely unacceptable.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n The RCN called for \u201ccold, hard data\u201d on corridor care to be published and for full implementation of the Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce\u2019s recommendations to build sustainable capacity across hospital, community, and social care.\n<\/p>\n

\n Opposition parties, accused the government of offering \u201cmore waffle\u201d and failing to grasp the scale of the crisis facing the NHS.\n<\/p>\n

\n Scottish Conservative shadow public health minister Brian Whittle MSP said: \u201cOur NHS is heading into the toughest winter it\u2019s ever faced \u2013 and this so-called \u2018plan\u2019 isn\u2019t worth the paper it\u2019s written on.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n The MSP said: \u201cNeil Gray<\/a> has had months to prepare, but instead of putting a credible strategy in place to get our health service through the difficult months ahead, he\u2019s churned out more waffle that will do little to help frontline staff or patients.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe\u2019re facing the worst flu outbreak in years, but while the SNP<\/a> health secretary lectures people to get vaccinated, many Scots are being told they won\u2019t get their jabs until December. That\u2019s far too late \u2013 just like Neil Gray\u2019s sticking plaster plan.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Mr Whittle pointed out that one in six Scots are on a waiting list and he said “the failure to eradicate delayed discharge is clogging up beds and ambulances are piling up outside our hospitals.”\n<\/p>\n

\n He added: \u201cWinter is here, and Neil Gray seems to have been caught by surprise. Patients can\u2019t afford for the NHS to keep lurching from crisis to crisis under the SNP.\n<\/p>\n

\n “If Neil Gray wants to get serious about getting the NHS back on its feet, he needs to adopt our plans to help staff prioritise patients over paperwork and build an NHS that\u2019s fit for the 21st\u00a0Century.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Scottish Labour<\/a>‘s Jackie Ballie also criticised a later than normal statement from the health secretary as she pointed out that vaccination is down at a time when a “mutated H3N2 flu”- which she said has already “devastated Australia” – is “heading this way”.\n<\/p>\n

\n She added: “There are 400,000 fewer adults vaccinated now than there was this time two years ago.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Mr Gray said he recognised the “potential prevalence” of H3N2, adding: “It’s too early to say that’s going to be the dominant strain this year.”\n<\/p>\n

\n The health secretary said he is encouraging everyone eligible to take up a vaccine, including children and teenagers where this can be “most prevalent.”\n<\/p>\n

\n At First Minister<\/a>\u2019s Questions earlier, Labour leader Anas Sarwar<\/a> claimed the NHS was suffering from an \u201cSNP problem” not a seasonal one, arguing delayed discharges and long waits had persisted for years.\n<\/p>\n

\n Mr Gray, however, insisted the government\u2019s strategy was making a difference and that he would \u201ccontinue to ensure that we are prepared not only for this coming winter, but all year round.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Addressing Holyrood, Mr Gray set out measures he said would strengthen the system\u2019s resilience, including the recruitment of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-261262","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}