Meeting of the Parliament 09 June 2026 [Draft]
I start by paying tribute to Patricia Gibson for securing the motion for debate and for campaigning on the issue over many years. In 2019, when she was a member of the House of Commons, she secured the first-ever debate in the Parliament on pre-eclampsia. As the Conservative Party health spokesperson at the time, I saw the debate and wanted to ensure that we had the opportunity to debate pre-eclampsia in the chamber. The following year, in March 2020, I secured a members’ debate in Conservative Party time.
I put on record that I do not feel that we have necessarily made the progress that we all want to see. In 2016, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended that testing should be made available. I welcome the fact that health boards in Scotland, including my health board in Lothian and NHS Fife—which I think was the first to do this—have implemented the testing from 2024 for pregnant women who are at increased risk of pre-eclampsia. However, I do not think that we are capturing everybody, and, in considering the asks that the member has put to the minister, we need to understand that. We must ensure that the testing captures those who are in their first pregnancies in particular.
Nonetheless, I welcome some of the positive progress that has been made by the Government. We need to continue to campaign on the issue and I very much welcome the fact that this is the first members’ business debate of the parliamentary session.
I pay tribute to the Presiding Officer. Throughout his time as an MSP, he has also advocated for more action and has spoken in every one of the members’ debates on the issue in the Parliament. It is important to put that on record. I pay tribute to and thank Jack Middleton for sharing his personal and family stories. Every new MSP has the opportunity to bring their personal stories to the chamber to ensure that we bring to life the campaigns and issues that we need to act on collectively.
The testing that I have mentioned is welcome. It is taking forward early intervention and I hope that it will provide the opportunity to put in place a preventative pathway for pregnant women. However, clearly, the aftercare is not being delivered. I am concerned about the many tales and stories that I have heard of individuals who have had a test and got care, but have then not been provided with that lifelong care—after they have had a successful pregnancy, the NHS decides that that is it. People go home, celebrate their baby and get on with life, but the aftercare and the future impact of pre-eclampsia on people’s health is not being taken seriously and the necessary future testing is not being put in place. I did not have time to check, but I do not think that the Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland has done any work on or made recommendations on what such lifelong care should look like. It has taken 10 years for the NHS to get to a place where it is willing to test for pre-eclampsia. Delivering the aftercare for life that individuals will need following pre-eclampsia should be the subject of the next campaign and is something that we should all strive for.
We must return to the issue of health inequalities. From speaking to constituents, I know that the ability to access testing and other health services continues to be a postcode lottery. I pay tribute to Action on Pre-eclampsia. I printed off its debate briefing from 2020. At that point, APEC wanted to see an end to the postcode lottery when it came to testing, whereby women in Scotland were being unfairly and inequitably deprived of a test that could be life saving. I am concerned that, now, women and babies across Scotland are fighting to access the aftercare.
This debate is very welcome, but it is not the end in any way. We need to address the aftercare of affected women in Scotland. I hope that the debate is just the start of our work to ensure that such aftercare is delivered during this parliamentary session.