Meeting of the Parliament 22 January 2015
Almost three months into my job as Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Sport, I start my speech by saying how proud I am of Scotland’s NHS. In the past few months, the NHS, alongside its partners in the other emergency services, has faced a number of very difficult high-profile emergencies. The George Square tragedy just before Christmas and the on-going challenges with Ebola have demonstrated the tireless compassion and professionalism of our front-line staff and we should be proud of each and every one of them.
The NHS has a good record and I am grateful to be able to highlight once again through this debate the on-going achievements of the NHS and to express my deep appreciation of the tireless efforts of NHS staff in delivering high-quality patient care. That work is universally recognised, not least by the Scottish people, with 89 per cent of in-patients rating their care and treatment positively in 2014, the highest figure since we started surveying patients.
Today the NHS treats a record number of people. Over 1 million people received in-patient treatment during the past year, and there were more than 4.5 million out-patient attendances. Waiting time targets are tougher and the NHS is performing better against those targets than it did previously. Further improvements also continue to be secured in patient safety, with huge reductions in levels of healthcare-associated infection. Since 2007, cases of Clostridium difficile among those aged 65 and over have fallen by 81 per cent, while cases of MRSA are down by 88 per cent.
There has been progress, but there is much more to be done.