Wishart highlights importance of separate island health boards

Scottish Liberal Democrat and Shetland MSP, Beatrice Wishart, in a session of General Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, has highlighted the benefit of local island health boards remaining separate from other NHS boards.

Ms Wishart asked the Cabinet Secretary:

“I think patients would welcome the reduction of administrative burdens on doctors in an endeavour for a greater focus on patient treatment.

“Island health boards know how to deliver island healthcare.

“Does the Cabinet Secretary agree that island health boards should remain as separate NHS boards?”

The Cabinet Secretary responded that he wanted to see “the blurring of boundaries between health boards” for greater regional working as opposed to other forms of structural re-organisation.

After the Question session Ms Wishart said:

“NHS Shetland already works well in partnership with NHS Grampian and other health boards for treatments that are not available in the isles.

“Scottish Labour’s proposals to reduce the current number of health boards to three ‘superboards’ demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of island and rural communities if they think that our needs are best served by a health board that could be based as far away as Dundee. 

“Labour appear to have learned nothing from the SNP's failures in trying to centralise the running of social care services or the erosion of local links when a single national police force was established.

“Regardless of which party proposes centralising health services it is a bad idea, bad when proposed by the SNP and bad too now that they are being proposed by Labour.”

You can watch Ms Wishart’s question here.