John Swinney: New network of walk-in clinics will end 8am rush for GP appointment

John Swinney pledged to roll out a nationwide network of “walk-in GP services” as he vowed to end the “8am rush” for a doctor’s appointment.

Giving the closing address at the SNP’s 91^st annual conference in Aberdeen, Swinney admitted there were “challenges” facing Scotland’s NHS.

He said his government would fund a network of community-based clinics staffed by GPs and nurses which would open between 12pm and 8pm and where patients would not require an appointment.

And he said the government would sponsor skilled social care staff to come to Scotland so they could “work, pay tax and help keep Scotland’s care homes running”.

The sponsorship programme is expected to cost £600,000, and will apply to workers who have lost their jobs due to changes in UK Government immigration rules.

In a 35-minute speech which was both highly critical of Keir Starmer and the wider Westminster system, Swinney accused the prime minister of “dressing up as Nigel Farage”.

And he said Labour and the Tories were “locked in a race to the right” which could only be won by the Reform leader.

He also railed against the Labour government’s proposal for digital ID, which he again called “Brit-cards” and said the problems facing the UK were “a culmination of decades of failed Thatcherite economics”. 

And in a reference to a controversial speech on immigration made by the prime minister earlier this year, Swinney said his party embraced internationalism not isolationism: “Never an island of strangers, always a continent of friends”. 

“Keir Starmer promised to be a left-wing Labour leader,” Swinney said. “And then he became a right-wing prime minister.”

“He stole Jeremy Corbyn’s clothes and now he’s dressing up as Nigel Farage. He hasn’t even tried to implement the progressive policies that people backed him for.”

The SNP leader said the Westminster system was “broken beyond repair” as he warned of the “race to the right” happening across UK politics, which he said would help aid the cause of Scottish independence.

“Today, I believe it will be revulsion at Westminster’s race to the right that will change Scotland’s status again. From a so-called devolved nation, to what we can be: A modern, outward looking, inclusive compassionate country. Not a devolved nation. But the world’s newest nation state.”

On Saturday, delegates backed Swinney’s independence strategy following a two-hour debate on the conference floor.

They agreed that winning a majority of seats at next year’s Holyrood election would give the SNP a democratic mandate to call for a second independence referendum.

Swinney argued his party had to go into the election with a “clear, simple and unambiguous message” that “only a vote for the SNP” would result in another referendum, which he said was the only way to secure independence.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said there would be no referendum while he was in Downing Street, saying it was important to focus on the “priorities that matter most”.

Addressing delegates on Monday afternoon, Swinney said: “On Saturday, we showed how serious we are about achieving that goal by agreeing our strategy to get us there. We did so through reasoned, respectful and spirited discussion.

“In a world where democracy is under threat, it is safe to say it is alive and well, and thriving, in the SNP. And it is democracy that will now take us forward. Our task is to win a majority of seats in the Scottish Parliament We are going to break the logjam in Scottish politics.”

On the announcement of a new walk-GP service, Swinney said these would begin operating from 15 sites, with the first opening within the year.

He said they would help provide an additional one million GP and nurse appointments. There was no detail of how the service will be funded or where the first clinic will open.

Ahead of the speech, the SNP conference backed a resolution which condemned Labour’s “cruel approach to welfare”. The Scottish Government has pledged to scrap the two-child cap from March next year.

At the weekend Bridget Phillipson, who is running to be the next deputy leader of the Labour Party, called on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to scrap the cap in next month’s Budget. There have been reports Reeves is exploring the introduction of a “tapered” system which would remove the cap in part.

Commenting on the pledge for a new walk-in GP service, Scottish Labour's Jackie Baillie said: “John Swinney speaks as though he’s only just discovered the crisis facing our health service, when in reality the alarm bells have been ringing for years.

“But this is just another example of government by press release, with another sticking plaster promise to try and fix the mess while the crisis at the heart of the system goes ignored. 

“After 18 years in power, if John Swinney and the SNP had the ideas to fix Scotland’s NHS, they would have done it by now.”

Also reacting to Swinney's announcement, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “The SNP have been in power for 18 years and on their watch there are not enough GPs. In fact they have hired less than one in 10 of the GPs they promised in 2017.

“John Swinney didn’t fund a fix when he was finance secretary for years. No one believes he will do it now as first minister.

“Vast numbers of Scots are on waiting lists and the SNP government is seven years behind England when it comes to introducing an NHS app. No one should trust John Swinney with running the health service.”

Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay described Swinney's plan as “half-baked”.

He said: “As he delivered his recycled rhetoric, he appears to have forgotten that he’s been at the heart of this useless SNP government which has left a trail of broken promises for almost two decades.

“His latest rallying cry to break up the country will excite diehard nationalists but everyone else is urging him to ‘move on, John’.

“This desperate speech confirms why it is of critical importance that we remove the SNP from power in next May's Holyrood election.”

The chair of the Royal College of GPs in Scotland, Dr Chris Provan said: “Our concern is that this proposal does not address the major barriers to good access: critical workforce shortages and unmanageable workload. While there has been a modest increase in whole-time equivalent GPs over the past year, Scotland still has fewer GPs today than it did a decade ago. This is the fundamental problem. 

“GPs will have serious concerns about the delivery and impact of this proposal, and we will await clarity on the implementation detail.” 

He added: “The best way to deliver improved patient access and care would be to provide the level of investment needed to overcome the impact of cumulative years of underfunding and the implementation of a long-term workforce strategy to increase the number of GPs.” 

Reaction from the hall: “He’ll have to do a bit more than that. It’s just the start.”

Leaving the hall after seven standing ovations, activists praised the speech as “inspiring and awesome”. “The GP hubs are going to be absolutely amazing,” one woman said. “That’s going to shut Russell Findlay and Anas Sarwar up for a while – they’ll be shellshocked.”

A delegate from the party's Tweedale branch praised the speech as having “a bit of oomph in it”. “He sounded believable,” she said of Swinney, “it was a believable speech”.

On whether the GP announcement was a vote-winner, she said: “He’ll have to do a bit more than that. It’s just the start.”

Another from the Oban and Lorne region said the conference’s decision on independence strategy had “made it easier” for activists to take the party’s message to the public.

“Things are much better than they were in 2023,” said a young activist from Dundee. “It’s much more upbeat. I’m not saying it’s at 2014 levels but it’s good.”