Meeting of the Parliament 03 September 2025
I, too, thank Kenneth Gibson for his motion and thank members from across the chamber for their helpful contributions.
The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all people in Scotland who live with long-term conditions, including chronic kidney disease—CKD—are able to access the best possible care and support and can benefit from healthcare services that are safe and effective and that put people at the centre of their own care. I thank all the organisations that are here tonight and the individuals who help and support those with CKD.
I will first respond to the points made by Mr Gibson and others about the long-term conditions framework. That framework recognises that, although every condition is different, there are universal standards that everyone should expect, no matter which condition they have. I thank Kidney Care UK, Kidney Research UK and the chronic kidney disease working group of Kidney Research UK in Scotland for contributing to the consultation on the framework, as well as thanking everyone else who contributed to our public consultation. We received 371 validated responses to that consultation and an analysis report will be published in October.
We will soon announce the governance arrangements, including the role of the third sector and those with lived experience in the development of the framework’s action plans. The Scottish Government and I place a huge importance on hearing from organisations representing people with long-term conditions and hearing directly from people with lived experience. That will be an important aspect of how we develop the framework and the on-going action plans to improve services for people with long-term conditions, including CKD, especially in highlighting inequalities.
I note the important role that the third sector has played over the years in driving improvements in condition-specific strategies. We want to ensure that kidney organisations can play that role, too. Importantly, this will be an opportunity for kidney organisations, as well as organisations representing other conditions, to come together and work collaboratively with the Scottish Government on improving care for people with long-term conditions. I very much look forward to meeting Kidney Care UK soon to discuss the framework and to attending Kidney Research UK’s summit in the next few weeks.
I also want to note where our wider Government policies deliver the asks of the motion regarding prevention, early diagnosis, equitable access to transplantation, a home-first approach to dialysis care and improving donation rates. That is important, as I agree with the points that Brian Whittle and others made about the impact that those issues can have on people and on Scotland’s economy.
In the “NHS Scotland Operational Improvement Plan” document, which was published on 31 March, the cabinet secretary set out that we will work to ensure that people receive the right care in the right place. Home dialysis can offer many benefits to NHS boards and patients, as many members have said.
Last year, we implemented a Scotland-wide policy of reimbursing home dialysis patients for the extra electricity costs incurred in their treatment, as Foysol Choudhury noted. That removes the financial disincentive to choose home dialysis over in-centre treatments, allowing personal choice in where and how to receive treatment, whether people are in a rural, urban or island community. I note the targets that the Nordic countries are aiming for, which Mr Choudhury mentioned, and I will take them into further consideration.
I will quickly respond to Kenneth Gibson’s points about transport and, in doing so, thank Kidney Care UK for its in-centre dialysis transport report, “Left to get on with it”. In October 2024, we published the “Transport to Health Delivery Plan” document, which sets out 20 commitments across the Scottish Government and partners. We look forward to hearing from a short-life working group that was created by the chief executives of NHS boards to address the issue of transport and renal dialysis access. Once we get the outputs from that, we will consider them closely.
Our cardiovascular disease risk factors programme is undertaking work in that area, with the aim of reducing avoidable CVD death by 20 per cent in 20 years by improving the identification and management of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, raised blood sugars, obesity and smoking. As part of that programme, we have committed to supporting 100,000 patients with enhanced-service GP appointments by March 2026 for those key risk factors, with a particular focus on supporting people living in areas of deprivation.
The Scottish Government is also committed to improving outcomes for people living with diabetes. Through sustained investment, innovation and strategic policy, we are transforming diabetes care to reduce complications and support long-term health. Notably, more than £42 million has been invested in the type 2 diabetes prevention framework, supporting early intervention and remission strategies such as the Counterweight plus programme.
Through the actions that are set out in the “Donation and Transplantation Plan for Scotland: 2021-2026” document, the Scottish Government is committed to increasing organ donation numbers and access to life-changing and life-saving transplantation. I thank Christine Grahame for hosting, in September, a parliamentary event focused on organ donation, as we need to work to increase the number of organ donations that are made. Key to that is ensuring that as many people as possible have registered their decision on the organ donor register. Scotland has a good record on that in comparison with other parts of the UK, with 57.9 per cent of the population now having recorded their decision.