THE SNP was accused of “scandalous” failure as crumbling healthcare services, soaring drug and alcohol deaths and spiralling poverty cast a shadow over the nation.
Bleak figures show Scots’ life expectancy is lower than a decade ago — while more than two-thirds of kids are obese.
Meanwhile our drug fatalities rate remains the highest in Europe, homelessness is rising and NHS waiting times are worsening compared to down south.
Labour health spokeswoman Dame Jackie Baillie said ministers could “no longer mask failure with slogans and spin”.
She added: “After 17 years of this complacent SNP government, the sad truth is that Scots are facing shorter, less healthy and less comfortable lives.
“With nearly one in six Scots on an NHS waiting list, homelessness at staggering levels and life expectancy stagnating, the SNP must acknowledge that it has failed the people of Scotland.”
A oy born today is predicted to live for 76.8 years while a baby girl will typically reach 80.8.
Both are below the peaks of 77.1 and 81.1 respectively 12 years ago and under the average life expectancy for males (79.1) and women (83) in England.
Around 1.1 million Scots, including 30 per cent of kids and 20 per cent of working age, are thought to be living below the breadline.
The typical household income of £20,854 is below England’s £23,338 and the UK average of £22,789, our analysis of official figures reveals.
Businesses are also struggling with the Institute of Directors predicting 15 per cent of firms will cut costs or postpone expansions.
Some 16 per cent of households worry about running out of cash for meals.
And the Trussell Trust distributed a record 260,000 emergency food parcels across Scotland in 2022-23 — up 30 per cent on the year before — followed by 122,000 between last April and September.
Cara Hilton, of the food bank charity, admitted: “It’s heartbreaking that so many people are having to turn to food banks to get by.
“They simply do not have enough money to afford the essentials like meals, bills and toiletries.”
Meanwhile, nutrition experts told how rising food prices deepen the obesity crisis as poorer people can not afford healthier dishes.
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Health chiefs spend £600million a year tackling weight problems.
But it is reckoned ministers’ aim of cutting the childhood obesity rate to seven per cent by 2030 is unlikely to be achieved.
Professor Alex Johnstone, of Aberdeen University’s Rowett Institute, explained: “The current food system in the UK enables the consumption of highly processed foods, high in energy density, fat, sugar and salt, which are cheaper.
“Healthier foods are three times more expensive per calorie than unhealthy foods.”
Doctors and nurses continue to feel the strain in the pandemic’s aftermath despite record spending and staff numbers in the NHS.
Numbers of patients treated for cancer within the 62-day target after referral are down since Covid while just over a third of A&E patients are seen within four hours.
Waiting lists have rocketed from 484,000 in 2019 to 864,000 last year.
COPS BURNT OUT
BY CHRIS TAYLOR
COPS are unable to dedicate enough time to tackling crime due to heavy workloads and lack of numbers, the Scottish Police Federation has warned.
General secretary David Kennedy (pictured) says more recruits are needed to ease the strain on officers bogged down with duties and paperwork.
Rank-and-file boss Mr Kennedy said: “The budget has been cut by £200million.
“You could walk down any main street and be lucky to see officers on the beat.
“They are overstretched and burnt-out and that leads to people going off sick or quitting. Not being able to dedicate enough time to cases is eroding public trust.
“There’s new recruits coming in who are quitting because the job is not what they thought it would be.”
More than 300,000 crimes were recorded by September last year. Domestic abuse call-outs rocketed 44 per cent since 2020 to 2,313.
Shoplifting has soared 70 per cent to 42,271 since 2023, with rapes up a fifth to 2,746.
Police Scotland currently has 16,400 officers.
Five per cent fewer planned inpatient admissions, nine per cent fewer emergency admissions and six per cent fewer outpatient appointments were completed between April and June, compared to October to December 2019.
Yet the English NHS showed improvements in the same categories — despite First Minister John Swinney previously claiming doctors north of the border are “seeing more patients”.
Max Warner, who compared treatment figures across the UK for the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said it could take years for Scots hospitals to get back on track.
He warned: “Hospital activity remains below pre-pandemic levels and waiting time performance has worsened over the last year.
“The same is not true in England — where performance remains poor but it is moving in the right direction.”
Drugtalities here rose to 1,172 last year — a 12 per cent hike.
Heroin and opioids were linked to 80 per cent of deaths.
Cocaine killed 479 users, while benzodiazepines claimed 678 lives. And health chiefs last week opened the country’s first so-called fix room — where addicts can inject Class A drugs under supervision — in Calton, Glasgow.
Ex-cocaine addict Lee Borthwick, 33, of Drongan, Ayrshire, told how drugs were like a “tornado” wrecking thousands of lives.
Lee, who launched recovery group Unity Connections, added: “Almost everybody will know a drug user — it’s an epidemic.
THE SCOTTISH SUN SAYS…
HOW did Scotland get into this sorry state?
As we reveal in our special report, we are in the midst of a public services crisis — no matter how much those in power try to persuade you otherwise.
The evidence laid bare in official figures is utterly devastating.
In areas like the NHS, education, life expectancy, obesity, drug deaths and homelessness, the warning lights are flashing red.
Big external forces have been at play, of course, with global economic headwinds and the pandemic — the excuses our governments so often reach for. But the decay was there long before Covid and its aftermath.
While the past few years has seen economic turbulence worsened by some calls at Westminster, there is a powerhouse devolved parliament at Holyrood.
The constant blame and finger-pointing by the SNP wore thin long ago.
The powers now resting at Holyrood under the deal done after the 2014 independence referendum should enable Scotland to forge its own destiny, to a large extent.
This is especially true given the funding situation — and the considerable amounts of additional cash spent per head on public services in Scotland, compared to England.
In 2023/24, Scots received £2,400 more spending per head than the UK average.
This came in 12 months when our on-paper deficit — had UK money not been pooled and shared — would have risen to a staggering £22.7billion.
Cash spent on services such as the NHS, welfare, roads, and schools in Scotland eclipsed £20,000 per person for the first time — outstripping income by more than £4,000.
Life in the rest of the UK too is far from rosy, of course.
But so often, the SNP like to draw comparisons with our English neighbours in order to score political points.
So what are Scots getting for this extra cash that is spent on services here?
Studies suggest the NHS — which is wholly devolved — is recovering more slowly than south of the border.
Waiting lists have rocketed in the three years since SNP ministers told us they had a plan to cut them.
We have higher levels of alcohol deaths, and our drugs deaths are off the scale when compared to the rest of Europe.
Life expectancy is lower than England and Wales.
Our education system is struggling, with international tests showing secondary pupils faring worse than in England in reading, maths and science since 2015.
The key indicators we display show a broken Scotland, badly in need of repair.
We hope they are a wake-up call for those political leaders who have been asleep at the wheel — allowing Scotland to crash into despair.
“It’s become part of the culture, which you don’t see in other countries. Drugs are like a tornado which take away your family, home, job, money, sanity and, for too many, their lives.”
Meanwhile, drink-related fatalities have soared to their highest levels for a decade and a half after 1,277 people lost their lives last year.
Ministers are now weighing up an alcohol advertising ban.
Laura Mahon, of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said booze-related fatalities were “entirely preventable”.
She explained: “It is vital to understand that alcohol deaths do not just occur when someone has an addiction.
“Over a million Scots are regularly drinking at levels which could severely damage their health, even when people believe they are drinking in moderation.”
In another crisis, a housing emergency was declared last May amid a surge in rough sleeping.
There were 40,685 applications for help to housing authorities — up four per cent on 2022-23.
Scottish Conservatives’ deputy leader Rachael Hamilton MSP accused Nats of wasting time dealing with “fringe” concerns rather than “real issues” facing Scots.
She said: “These damning statistics lay bare 17 years of scandalous failure from the SNP. Among their so-called record achievements are making Scotland the drug death capital of Europe and a housing emergency.”
£127M HIT TO LIFELINES
BY CHRIS TAYLOR
FRONTLINE booze and drugs services are among those to have day-to-day funding cut by £127million — despite record fatalities.
The cashpot to help tackle substance misuse alone is being slashed by £1.6million.
Alcohol and drugs killed 2,449 Scots last year.
Sports, public transport and overstretched courts were also hammered in last month’s Holyrood Budget.
Savings will be used to pay for benefits, including reinstating £100 winter fuel payments for OAPs and mitigating the two-child cap.
Scots Tory Craig Hoy (pictured) said “excess spending” on hand-outs while hitting services proves “how detached from reality” SNP ministers are.
SNP ministers said they have awarded a record £21billion to the NHS to boost patient care and cut waiting lists, with £1.6billion for the police.
They accused the previous Tory Westminster regime of pushing people into poverty with benefit caps.
Health Secretary Neil Gray said: “Health inequalities are inextricably linked to poverty and we continue to prioritise action to tackle and reduce poverty.
“Fourteen years of austerity imposed by previous UK Governments and continuing effects of the pandemic have had an impact on our NHS.
Despite this we are reducing backlogs, adding 24,000 outpatient and inpatient appointments and over 40,000 diagnostic tests.
“Research estimates that the world-leading Minimum Unit Pricing [alcohol] policy has saved hundreds of lives.
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“We are widening access to life-saving [overdose reversal drug] Naloxone and will continue to invest in residential rehabilitation to increase capacity and fund placements.
“We are making progress but know there is more to do.”
