Hansard

I welcome the opportunity to close the debate, which has been wide ranging and interesting.

We have all agreed that, without a doubt, our emergency services face tough and difficult situations on a daily basis. I echo what others have said and pass on my gratitude to each and every member of our emergency services, as well as those who volunteer their spare time to help those in need, no matter what the circumstances. At some time in our lives, each and every one of us, or someone we know, will rely on the skills and dedication of emergency service personnel. It is that dedication to deliver those services day in, day out that we commend today.

I echo Elaine Murray’s and Patricia Ferguson’s concern about the recognition of firefighters, which Patricia Ferguson raised in relation to the Stockline incident. I think that public opinion these days is very much in favour of our emergency services. The public recognise that things cannot be fixed immediately in certain situations but that our emergency services are doing their very best. I wish that sometimes the press would reflect that, too.

I agree with Jackson Carlaw’s concern about hoax calls, although the majority of people use our emergency service call lines responsibly. Any malicious calls are taken very seriously, and the Scottish Government fully supports our police and prosecutors, who hold those who are responsible to account. However, I assure Jackson Carlaw that the services make every effort to identify calls that might be linked to mental health issues and to advise the relevant agencies accordingly.

The commitment of our emergency services is shown in the examples that have been shared in the debate of how the men and women who serve in them respond on a daily basis to a wide and diverse range of situations of varying degrees of risk and challenge, some of which may put their lives at risk. It is great that members have recognised a huge variety of volunteers and services. In an emotional speech, Mike MacKenzie mentioned volunteer firefighters and the coastguard. Elaine Murray rightly recognised the people who clear our roads and railways, and Alison McInnes mentioned the engineers on our rail lines.

Hanzala Malik rightly recognised the contribution of the mosques and other faith services. We should acknowledge the Samaritans, the street pastors and the Red Cross. Who can forget the great work that Laurence Whitley of Glasgow cathedral did to support the families after the Clutha crash or what Archbishop Tartaglia did after the bin lorry disaster?

As Dr Simpson acknowledged, Graeme Dey mentioned farmers. As a farmer’s daughter, I have had to help people out of snowdrifts and had to be rescued myself, so it was good that he mentioned them.

We should all remember that, as Rob Gibson mentioned, personal resilience is important. That adds up to community resilience, which is helped—as Stewart Maxwell recognised—by first responders and the availability of defibrillators in our society.

Saving lives and bringing new lives into the world is part of the day-to-day job, which must be daunting as well as sometimes exciting. Keeping Scotland safe must bring a sense of satisfaction that few careers can profess to offer. I encourage Scotland’s young people to consider a career with the emergency services when they review their futures.

Job satisfaction rates from the recent 2014 NHS Scotland staff survey found that 85 per cent of Scottish Ambulance Service staff who answered the survey were happy to go the extra mile at work. I expect such survey results to be typical of all our emergency services, which reinforces the positive attitude that our workforce has and further enhances our trust and confidence in them. It should go without saying that the Scottish Government is equally committed to supporting our emergency services to ensure that they continue to keep the whole of Scotland’s population safe.

We heard earlier that the Scottish Government is the only Government in the UK to provide annual grant funding to its national mountain rescue service. We want to ensure that Scotland’s natural environment and alluring landscape are accessible to those who wish to explore them in the knowledge that help is at hand should the unpredictable climatic conditions result in their getting into difficulty. However, as Jamie McGrigor said, people should still be mindful of the need to be well equipped when they go into the mountains.

In those circumstances, the Scottish Ambulance Service has a range of specialist services that it can deploy, including the national specialist emergency transport and retrieval service—ScotSTAR for short—which was launched in April last year. ScotSTAR is aimed at helping a range of critically ill patients by providing a single specialist integrated service throughout Scotland. Such services are world class and they highlight the fact that Scotland is leading the way in providing services that protect people the length and breadth of the country.

Of course we always want to do more and work together even more effectively. A key area in which we can do more is improving the co-ordination and effectiveness of the response to cardiac arrests. If we do that well, more lives can be saved. The Scottish Government is working with the Scottish Ambulance Service, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Police Scotland, third sector organisations and other stakeholders to develop a new strategy, which is to be launched in the spring, to ensure that the outcomes for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Scotland are as good as those anywhere in the world.

Presiding Officer, 2014 saw both tragedy and triumph. Our emergency services demonstrated that, whatever the circumstances, they have tried and tested ways of working together to provide a professional, co-ordinated and immediate response to major incidents and events. As was mentioned, we all saw that most recently at the tragic events in George Square on 22 December. Despite what can only be described as the worst circumstances, everyone who helped during the tragedy acted courageously and with compassion. They should be very proud of that. Thankfully, most of us can only imagine how difficult that must have been.

Because of the distressing nature of the work, it is important—as several members mentioned—that emergency service staff are given the space, time and opportunity to look after their own health and wellbeing. The emergency services take their responsibility for staff wellbeing extremely seriously and have programmes in place to provide support. For example, the Scottish Ambulance Service provides formal counselling to all staff as part of its employee counselling service. That service supports staff with information on where to find relevant help, especially following mass casualty incidents.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service works with the Rivers centre in Edinburgh, which offers treatment for trauma-related problems to all fire staff. That is an example of excellent working between our emergency services and NHS boards, and the Scottish Government welcomes and encourages more of such collaborative working. In addition, there are chaplains to support members of the emergency services, and there are chaplains who are trained in dealing with people who have been involved in major incidents.

To enhance that provision, last year the Scottish Government announced that money that was received from the UK Government as a result of London interbank offered rate—LIBOR—fines could be used for wellbeing projects to support staff in all three of the main emergency services, as well as staff in a number of voluntary services.

We should remember that the emergency services excel not only in times of tragedy, but in times of celebration. Our emergency services can be proud of their part in delivering the most successful and safe Commonwealth games, during which 1.2 million tickets were sold and around 690,000 games-related visitors attended events.

We should also acknowledge the many employers who recognise that their employees wish to be volunteers, to be retained firefighters, to crew our lifeboats or to be members of the mountain rescue service by allowing them to take time off to do that work.

I express my gratitude for being given the chance to offer my personal thanks to all staff in the emergency services, both onshore and offshore. We should remember that the emergency services cover our offshore installations, in relation to which there have been a number of incidents. I also thank all those members who expressed their thanks to the emergency services during the debate.

It would not be appropriate for the Government to direct Parliament, but if parliamentary committees wish to hold inquiries in this area, the Government will co-operate. I reassure Hugh Henry, Hanzala Malik and other Labour members that, day in and day out, Government ministers meet representatives of all the emergency services that have been mentioned to ensure that we are delivering the best possible level of service.

We have all been inspired by the stories that we have heard during the debate, and our emergency and voluntary services can be very proud of what they do.