IT’S over a year since Edington Cottage hospital in North Berwick was closed without consultation.

While the local health board and health and social care partnership say this is due to Covid, in truth it’s down to years of poor workforce planning by the SNP Government. And if you think things are bad now, then I am afraid they could be about to get a lot worse.

The SNP has introduced legislation to grab social care from councils and local communities through the creation of a centralised National Care Service under ministers’ control. Its proposed National Care Service has been widely criticised across the political spectrum and the third sector.

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) and UNISON warned: “For the sake of those individuals and families who need our support waiting four or five years for the establishment of the NCS is not an option.

“We cannot and should not break up the local government workforce, particularly at this critical time in our recovery from the pandemic. Instead we should build on the knowledge, skills and expertise in local areas to ensure that we can deliver a world class, properly resourced system which delivers for our communities.”

To me, it makes no sense to centralise care under a national structure.

Put simply it will weaken the connection between care and the community – just as the closure of the in-patient and palliative care beds at Edington has done.

What the SNP are proposing amounts to a power grab: taking decisions away from local communities where care is best delivered, and putting it in the hands of politicians at Holyrood.

Independent researchers estimate that the SNP’s proposal to create a National Care Service in Scotland will cost up to £1.3 billion over the next five years. That’s a staggering amount of money which could be put into frontline staffing and care.