Thursday October 15th 2026
Miles Briggs, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party writes his monthly column for Midlothian View.
What is the future for how health and social care across the Lothians is administered ? That is the question being asked by ministers undertaking public service reforms.
SNP ministers have for years squeezed local authority budgets, centralising power in Holyrood, and mismanaged public finances. The effects of this are felt more and more every day across our region. The inevitable consequences of a broken funding model are rapidly becoming a time-bomb for the most vulnerable people in our society.
At the forefront of cuts and growing pressures are the third sector and early intervention services, as integrated joint boards (IJBs) and councils look desperately for savings.
The latest threat of cuts hit Midlothian last week as home-care packages were proposed to be cut to ‘critical care only’, placing many vulnerable people at risk of losing their independence and landing in hospital against their will. A review into the proposal heard at an IJB meeting last week reported that the vast majority of those currently receiving care would be at greater risk if the proposed move to ‘critical care only’ went ahead.
Earlier in the year we saw the Loanesk palliative care ward undergo a reduction in capacity, depriving the area of vital bed space and rightly causing uproar in the community. Meanwhile, Sure Start was forced to close its Mount Esk and Gorebridge Family Learning Centres in the face of third sector funding cuts, to the dismay of kids and parents alike.
But this problem is not unique to Midlothian; it is a looming crisis unfolding across the whole NHS Lothian health board. Last week I visited the Edinburgh Crisis Centre to hear how the 24/7 mental health charity was facing cuts from the local IJB. This is only the latest in a series of blows to third sector mental health care in our region, and in my conversations with constituents and charities there is growing concern that the most vulnerable will soon find themselves without vital support.
The fact that life-saving regional care assets are on the chopping block shows that the SNP’s funding framework is fundamentally broken. Ministers’ public sector reforms announced last month do not set out clear and comprehensive answers to the concerns of our frontline health workers; there is widespread fear that the SNP’s vague reforms will be too little, too late.
Both as MSP for the region and Health and Care spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives I will be keeping the pressure on SNP ministers and IJBs as Holyrood budget talks draw nearer. If we want to protect what is left of care in the community and third sectors, we need a fundamental administrative overhaul and long-term funding plan at the national level that prioritises frontline and early-intervention services.
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