The hospital, which opened in 2015, was designed to meet the healthcare needs of the growing population of the city and surrounding areas. However, it has struggled to cope with the demand for services, resulting in long wait times for patients and a lack of available beds. I plan on explaining why.

Last month, only 35.1% of patients were seen within the allotted four hours, and 1,179 patients waited longer than the target time. Since weekly recordings first started seven years ago, it was the lowest performance by any hospital in the country. The fault isn’t that of the staff or even the hospital itself, it’s a multitude of issues.

According to a statement from the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board, the hospital was dealing with serious pressures, including issues throughout the entire facility that affected A&E. It claimed to be conducting a hiring drive and devising new patient care strategies, such as virtual A&E care. That’s great but it comes after letting a hundred or so staff go, or failing to renew their fixed-term contracts in favour of paying over the odds for more agency staff.

Just what are the issues? Well, I’ve worked in the NHS for over 16 years, all of those years at the same site, the Southern General Hospital and, of course, the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, and I’d like to try and explain.

There are several reasons why staffing is a problem for NHS Scotland. One of the main challenges is the high number of staff leaving the organisation. This can be due to various factors, including low pay, poor working conditions, and a lack of opportunities for career advancement. As a result, many experienced staff members are leaving the NHS, which can lead to a shortage of qualified personnel.

Another problem is the difficulty in attracting new staff to the NHS. With the current economic climate and competition from other sectors, it can be difficult to attract talented individuals to work in the healthcare industry. Let’s not forget the damage caused by Brexit, either.

No doubt someone is angry with me right now, and they want to tell me that ‘Oh, but, NHS Scotland staff are better paid than those in England!’. Okay. Great. But I’m not in England, and neither are the patients.

The current pay and conditions can make filling vacancies and maintaining adequate staffing difficult. There was a recent positive step forward on this. however, members of two major NHS unions in Scotland voted this week to accept an improved pay offer from the Scottish Government. It’s not as much as we wanted, but it’s a hell of a start.

This matters as much for porters and domestics as it does for nurses and auxiliaries. I’ll give you an example…

Mary is in Accident and Emergency at 3 pm and requires a bed in a ward, and luckily, there’s a bed in Ward 7A. However, there’s a problem, the bed hasn’t been cleaned as there are too few domestic staff. Okay, Mary is waiting a little longer, but the room will eventually be cleaned. Fast forward to 5 pm, and the room has now been cleaned, brilliant! However, we don’t have a porter to take Mary to the ward. Okay, it’s now 7 pm, and Mary is on her way to the ward. Not ideal, but not bad. Except, while Mary was delayed getting to her ward, a dozen more ambulances arrived, and they are waiting for Mary’s cubicle. The cycle starts again.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Politics Matters