Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 22 September 2021
We debate many motions that thank various workers and groups for their efforts. Although such motions have a place in the work that we do here, the weight of the crisis that affects ambulance availability and the subsequent stress that is caused to patients and front-line workers should hold greater sway than usual.
Although I applaud all of our dedicated staff, I will use my time better in trying to find out why the Government keeps letting them down. My standing here telling paramedics, call responders and technicians how thankful we are for their work will have made no difference if I am back here in a year doing exactly the same, while an unresponsive Government continues to make excuses for the problems.
We cannot change processes, adjust targets and rebrand services and call that reform. It is not. It is a branding exercise, not responsible governance. The key to the whole situation is simple. The Ambulance Service is underfunded, understaffed and lacking in resources: fix that, and we fix the problem.
I cannot stress enough to the Government that chasing targets and small headline improvements over proactive structural reform is not the way to run a health service. It is disappointing that the health secretary wasted his time this week briefing the Daily Record on his statement before informing Parliament, because doing so only further ingrains the image that this is all about expectation management and public presentation.
I do not want to manage the expectations of the woman who was left lying in Ayr town centre for four hours last month as she waited for an ambulance; I want her to be treated and back home with her family. That example is not even one of the extreme ones. Reports of patients waiting more than 40 hours for an ambulance create anxiety and stress throughout many communities, which are well aware that a delay in making it to hospital could, as we know, be the difference between life and death.
At least there is some positive news this week, as Covid rates seem to be declining across Scotland. I believe that we should use any breathing space that that allows us to focus all our efforts on preparing the NHS for the coming winter, and on alleviating pressure on the worst-impacted parts of our hospitals. Instead of doing that work, however, we might have to pick up the pieces from the missteps that have been taken over the past couple of years.
As my party colleagues and other members have mentioned, a concerning clinical backlog needs to be addressed right now that requires new field hospitals to tackle it. That is exactly what we should be doing. I understand that the health secretary has not ruled that out; I would support any steps to achieve that goal. Regardless of how it is reported, it is important for patients and the communities.
Before I close, I reiterate that all the problems—queues of ambulances, lack of beds, overworked staff—are deeply interconnected. We cannot tackle them without addressing the problem of underfunding. The Government has committed £1 billion of investment in the NHS over the next five years. Although some of that investment has gone towards training and recruiting new staff, that process will take almost a decade to bear fruit. In fact, nearly all the funding was already earmarked before May, with a fair amount of previous commitments already having been shelved.
That investment will not be enough. The NHS needs emergency measures to cope now. We see from feelings in the chamber that reports from our constituents suggest that the public wants action, too. After emergency measures, we need to address the problem of long-term planning and the failure to bring in well ahead of time the resources that the NHS requires.
The chamber should deal with the difficult issues, and we should pursue whatever works for the NHS. The strength of Scottish Labour’s motion reflects that intention, so I hope that it will be supported in that spirit.
16:59