'The NHS needs a long-term strategic plan': Miles Briggs on overcoming party politics for the NHS

Reflecting on ‘the nature of the beast’ of party politics, Miles Briggs MSP, the shadow health secretary, says that his role often leads to an emphasis on all that’s going wrong with the health of the nation.

“When people come to see me, it's usually with a complaint where, sadly, the health service has not worked for them,” he says.  

“That's a sad part of being in opposition, actually. You get the negative side.” 

After a summer punctuated by the biggest health scandals in recent memory, opposition MSPs are returning to the Scottish Parliament with plenty of ammunition to turn on the government. 

“This summer has really demonstrated the poor health of the nation,” Briggs says, “drug deaths being the highest in Europe and the world, the mental health figures are pretty appalling, and waiting times just aren’t being addressed.”

And in Edinburgh, the postponement of the opening of the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People has showcased mismanagement that, Briggs says, goes well beyond just bricks and mortar. 

“The whole fiasco around that has undermined confidence not just in that building, but actually, in the management and the political leadership of the NHS overall,” he says.

While drawing attention to government failings is an essential part of holding power to account, there have long been calls to consider a different approach when it comes to the health service. 

Jackson Carlaw, who preceded Briggs in the role of health spokesperson for the Scottish Conservatives, used to say that he wished politics could be removed from health. 

And it’s a sentiment Briggs shares. Despite his obligation to weaponise the Scottish Government’s mistakes and failures, he says acknowledging the daily successes of the NHS is an important starting point.

“I would say in the majority of cases, our NHS works well,” Briggs acknowledges. 

“When people do access services, they are always hugely complimentary and praising of those who work in the health service, so, I think that when it does work well, our NHS is tremendous.

“But there's always room for improvement,” he hastens to add.  

Beyond the headline-grabbing stories, the evidence of an underlying malaise in the NHS seems hard to ignore.

ISD statistics released in August showed that waiting-times targets had been missed. Audit Scotland highlighted the “significant challenge” in the primary care workforce, and the teetering finances of several of the regional health boards. 

Looking at this, Briggs says it isn’t hard to be drawn to the conclusion that something big has to change.

“We need to all, at some point, understand that the NHS needs a long-term strategic plan in Scotland to be sustainable.

“And I hope in the next Scottish Parliament, after 2021, that we can do that work and that we can do it cross-party. Because we need to,” he says.

“Alex Salmond's time as first minister was about independence. This whole parliament's been about Brexit. I hope the next parliament's all about the NHS.”

While the Conservatives have long been urging the government to set constitutional issues to one side and “get on with the day job”, Briggs believes it hasn’t just been the SNP who neglected to think long term on the NHS. 

“I actually think for all of us, when there's been opportunities to do that we haven't. We haven't really stepped up to the mark collectively as a parliament. I mean that over 20 years,” he says. 

“We've got to really ask ourselves, I think in Scotland, a question. Since this parliament was established 20 years ago, we've almost doubled the money we spend on our health service but we haven't doubled the outcomes.

NHS is too politicised, says Miles Briggs

“Last year we celebrated the NHS turning 70. We really need to look to the NHS being 100. How do we get there and what will the new challenges and opportunities in health be?”

The Scottish Conservatives are working on an NHS at 100 strategy ahead of the 2021 election.

“I would like to see a kind of version of a royal commission in the next parliament,” Briggs says, referring to a form of independent inquiry that was used to investigate the NHS in the mid-1970s. 

“We need to be able to make sure others have a chance to voice their opinions, from unions right through to people who are working on the frontline.

“Ideally, I would like to see it be something that’s, yes, government commissioned, but that’s completely neutral and talks about the difficult decisions,” Briggs says. 

“Because the only time we've really had that in living memory was the Kerr report.” 

The Kerr report, the result of a clinician led, root-and-branch inquiry into the structure of the NHS in Scotland in 2004-05, made recommendations for sweeping reforms while at the same time enjoying broad cross-party support on its release. 

But the report became a victim of party politics when, in the 2007 election, the SNP campaigned against what was cast as a push for hospital closures. Since then, its findings have largely been ignored.

While looking for today’s consensus on the future of the NHS, could the upcoming experiment of a citizens' assembly provide a model?

Bound by the current Conservative Party position to boycott the assembly, which Adam Tomkins has described as “a talking shop for independence”, Briggs doesn’t recommend that particular forum for discussing the NHS.

“When you start to have these things by saying, ‘oh, this is going to basically be part of our agenda for independence’, you shoot people's confidence straight away. I don't think it’s particularly inclusive,” Briggs says.

Whatever means are settled on to help decide the path forward, he wants to see measures for improving working conditions and empowering staff be central to future plans. 

Like each of us, Briggs has personal cause to feel attached to the NHS. 

“As a child,” he begins, before hesitating. “Actually, this is probably one of my most embarrassing stories,” Briggs chuckles.

“I was playing chase with my cousins at my grandparents’ house and somehow, I ran through my granddad's greenhouse. As you do,” he says, with a shrug.

“I was wearing a yellow t-shirt and shorts and by the time I ran into their house it had turned orange with blood, so I had to go to the hospital. I must have been five or six when this happened.

“But ever since I’ve had this Harry Potter scar on my forehead,” he says, pointing to the faint mark.

Not long after this childhood experience, Briggs and his family came to rely on the NHS during an especially trying and emotional time. 

“It was also there when my family needed it for my mum,” he remembers. 

“She died of cancer when I was seven.” 

Briggs has said that this experience is what motivates him in much of his campaign work today. 

“But, you know, today, in terms of cancer treatment and survival, we’re light years ahead of where we were then. Now, survival rates for breast cancer have hugely improved,” he reflects. 

“When you really need the health service and it's there for your family and it works, that's when people just see the NHS as something to be incredibly proud of as a nation.

“We all want to see it improved. And that's what we're all here trying to achieve.”