THERE has been no doubt in the past week that winter is approaching!

That means increasing pressure on our greatest public service – the NHS. Of course, that is no surprise, so all aspects of the NHS will be bracing themselves. The health secretary has announced £9m of additional funding to help with winter preparation.

Sounds good, but unfortunately it hides the fact that these extra funds are made available every year, and £9m is in fact less than last year. So, not really extra funding at all. And many NHS services are not in good shape going in to winter.

GPs repeatedly warn of a crisis, with one in four practices short of doctors and too few GPs being trained. Things are no better when it comes to nurses and midwives. Last week, the Royal College of Nursing published a report which showed that the nursing workforce has risen by only one per cent since 2009, in spite of growing demands on the NHS and many new responsibilities for nurses. They warn that we are heading for a “perfect storm” caused by health boards cutting nurses to make savings, then struggling to recruit more as demand soars.

It is not just staff either. Official figures show the NHS in Scotland has 5,000 fewer beds than in 2007 when the current SNP Government came to power.

No wonder, then, that we are seeing an increase in operations being cancelled due to “capacity reasons”, or the NHS spending £50m last year on operations done in the private sector instead.

We’ve also seen some surgical services cut from our new hospital in Haddington, before a brick is laid.

The truth is NHS boards are cutting £1m from their budgets every single day. NHS staff are doing their best, but they are under growing pressure. That RCN report was called ‘Unheeded Warnings: Health care in crisis’. It really is time to heed the warnings.