The former head of the NHS in Scotland has referred to as for a debate about whether or not the personal sector ought to have a higher involvement in healthcare.

Prof Paul Gray mentioned the well being service was “unsustainable” in its present type, with strain on workers rising and repair to sufferers deteriorating.

Change nothing, he warned, and “everything slowly gets worse.”

According to the newest statistics from Public Health Scotland, the ready listing for non-urgent outpatient care in Scotland was greater than 525,000 this autumn, up 10.5% on the identical time final yr and greater than double the extent earlier than the beginning of the Covid pandemic in March 2020.

The queue for inpatient remedy was greater than 150,000 on the finish of September, up 1% in three months.

There was a slight discount within the variety of folks ready greater than two years for outpatient appointments however the quantity ready greater than 18 months to be handled in hospital as inpatients rose.

Public Health Scotland factors out that particular person sufferers can seem on multiple ready listing as they might be ready for a number of appointments.

Prof Gray mentioned lengthy waits meant many sufferers have been already selecting to pay for some components of their care, as a result of they might afford to take action or as a result of their want was dire.

A nationwide dialog in regards to the construction and funding of the NHS ought to have begun 5 years in the past, he mentioned, describing the state of affairs now as “acute.”

“What we can’t afford is just to carry on as we are and hope for the best,” added Prof Gray, who was chief government of NHS Scotland from 2013 to 2019.

He insisted he didn’t have a view about whether or not or no more personal sector involvement was the reply and mentioned he didn’t consider the NHS was being privatised by stealth.

Prof Gray mentioned: “If we decide that actually the way we do it is the best way, of all the choices we could make, that’s OK, we’ve had the conversation.

“If then again we determine there’s more room for the personal sector, maybe they might do extra, then good, that is high-quality too.”

He added: “I additionally assume I hear and detect a real will to have the dialog. On stability my perspective is certainly one of hope not certainly one of despair.”

The trade union, Unison, has criticised talk of more private sector involvement in public healthcare, insisting that the NHS “is in a parlous state,” not because of structural failings but because of poor workforce planning and a lack of funding.

Wilma Brown, chair of Unison Scotland’s health committee said “these selling personal drugs” were choosing “to place the poor in the back of the queue.”

Ms Brown added: “Low taxes and correctly funded public companies are just about mutually unique. The debate we want is much extra about resourcing than construction.

Prof Gray first described the NHS in Scotland as “not sustainable in its present form” in an article final month for the Herald newspaper and Reform Scotland, which describes itself as a non-partisan impartial assume tank.