Meeting of the Parliament 05 November 2025 [Draft]
I have already said that, should the HIS inspections that we are getting before March, and the task force, recommend that course, that is what I will do. I believe that that culture has been exposed in the HIS inspections; we saw that that was central to the criticism in the Royal infirmary of Edinburgh report.
I will not tolerate that—I expect to see improvements in the culture, and we are seeing management improvements and changes as a result. That is why I have confidence in the situation that is being developed through the HIS inspections. If that changes in any way, I am open to what Stephen Kerr suggests.
With regard to Mr Rennie’s amendment, as I said in my statement last week, I expect the task force to look at rural maternity services as one of its first areas of focus. Members will be aware that NHS Highland instigated a review of services in Caithness in 2016, following the death of a full-term baby in Caithness general hospital. NHS Highland’s review incorporated the findings from two external reviews and recommended the move to the current model of maternity care that is operating in Caithness.
That being said, I am sympathetic to the concerns that are raised in the Liberal Democrat amendment, and the concerns that my colleagues Maree Todd and Emma Roddick have raised in—