A SENIOR Tory politician has been accused of dishonesty and hypocrisy by attempting to make people think NHS Scotland back his views.
Dr Sandesh Gulhane, the self-styled “media medic” and Conservative MSP for Glasgow, regularly displays his NHS Scotland lanyard while speaking in Holyrood.
The part-time GP is accused of attempting to make the public think the NHS backed his views and those of the Conservative party.
John Hutcheson, from Erskine, Renfrewshire, told the National he had attempted to complain to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde about Dr Gulhane wearing the NHS logo in Parliament.
The 66-year-old said: “He is clearly using it to give the impression he is speaking with operational authority within the medical profession and the NHS.
“He is certainly trying to give the public the impression the employees of the NHS support him and back him.”
Retired civil servant Hutcheson said Dr Gulhane, who works one day a week as a GP in Glasgow, was “all deception and presentation”.
He added: “It’s suggestion, deception and presentation for the Tories, that’s what they are all about.
“I was very angry, with someone from his party, there is a hypocrisy for him to stand up and give the impression he fully supported the NHS when his party has done more damage to the NHS than anybody else this century.”
Dr Gulhane’s lanyard has been noticed by admirers in the right-wing press - the Tories are “clearly grooming Dr Sandesh Gulhane for big things”, wrote the Daily Mail’s Stephen Daisley in September 2021.
Daisley wrote: “A practising GP is an enviable asset for an opposition party eager to needle to government on health.”
Dr Gulhane works one day per week as a GP, according to his website, but in a letter seen by the National, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde confirmed he is not an employee of the health board.
In response to Hutcheson’s complaint to the health board, corporate services manager Catriona Kent said: “Dr Gulhane is not an employee of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
“As advised previously, the vast majority of GP’s work as independent contractors or may be directly employed on a salaried or locum basis by a particular GP practice.
“As such, we do not feel we have a remit to look into the specific concern raised.”
Dr Gulhane previously hit out at Nicola Sturgeon for “misrepresenting” his views on Covid restrictions.
Earlier this month, Dr Gulhane said “we simply don’t know” the information on which the government bases its Covid rules.
Sturgeon accused him of thinking “no protective measures” - which the Tory health spokesman strenuously denied.
There is no suggestion that Dr Gulhane, who has been an MSP since last year, has broken any Scottish Parliament rules in wearing the lanyard.
A parliament spokesperson said: “MSPs are expected to wear and prominently display their parliamentary pass and lanyard when on campus however there are no specific rules about what other/additional lanyards MSPs wear on campus.
“However, members should not wear anything in the chamber that could be considered overtly political or campaigning in nature.”
Dr Gulhane was approached for comment.
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