Chamber
Plenary, 25 Apr 2002
25 Apr 2002 · S1 · Plenary
Item of business
Primary Health Care
We need only look at the figures to see what is happening. The proof of the pudding will be when GPs and others stop walking away from the health minister. What will the minister do to encourage GPs who have walked away from the profession back into the fold, to deliver the health care for which they were trained?
Last week, Dr Joiner resigned, citing a long list of reasons for dissatisfaction. Let me read from the letter that he sent to his patients:
"I find the administration increasingly difficult to work with and the demands of the new financial bosses completely unacceptable. The reasons that I have decided to resign are common to several senior doctors in Scotland—especially in the Highlands: being single-handed, onerous out of hours responsibility and the administrative demands of our bosses."
The problems are not all about pay and Dr Joiner is not alone. In the past six months, 10 per cent of GPs in remote and rural areas have resigned. There is a great deal of frustration in their cries for help. For example, Dr Macleod of Glencoe and Ballachulish paid £20,000 of his own money to employ an associate GP, but that was not accepted by Highland NHS Board because it did not fit into the favoured new PMS model, which does not encourage that kind of approach. I believe that we should listen to Highland doctors such as Dr Macleod, who know exactly what their patients need, what doctors need and how to work together to provide the best level of care.
The problems in the Highlands are critical—[Interruption.]
Last week, Dr Joiner resigned, citing a long list of reasons for dissatisfaction. Let me read from the letter that he sent to his patients:
"I find the administration increasingly difficult to work with and the demands of the new financial bosses completely unacceptable. The reasons that I have decided to resign are common to several senior doctors in Scotland—especially in the Highlands: being single-handed, onerous out of hours responsibility and the administrative demands of our bosses."
The problems are not all about pay and Dr Joiner is not alone. In the past six months, 10 per cent of GPs in remote and rural areas have resigned. There is a great deal of frustration in their cries for help. For example, Dr Macleod of Glencoe and Ballachulish paid £20,000 of his own money to employ an associate GP, but that was not accepted by Highland NHS Board because it did not fit into the favoured new PMS model, which does not encourage that kind of approach. I believe that we should listen to Highland doctors such as Dr Macleod, who know exactly what their patients need, what doctors need and how to work together to provide the best level of care.
The problems in the Highlands are critical—[Interruption.]
In the same item of business
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Mr George Reid):
SNP
Good morning. The first item of business is a debate on motion S1M-3022, in the name of Malcolm Chisholm, on modernising primary health care in the national ...
The Minister for Health and Community Care (Malcolm Chisholm):
Lab
Our agenda of investment and reform is a collaborative venture that involves patients and front-line staff wherever they are based. Our focus is the patient ...
Ben Wallace (North-East Scotland) (Con):
Con
I am grateful for the minister's comments on our amendment. He will know that the amendment uses the words of Alan Milburn, not those of the Scottish Conserv...
Malcolm Chisholm:
Lab
I do not know what Iain Duncan Smith or Liam Fox would think about it, but time and again the Conservatives talk to me about Alan Milburn. They often misrepr...
Tommy Sheridan (Glasgow) (SSP):
SSP
On the time limit for an appointment with the appropriate primary care professional, where does physiotherapy fit into the Executive's plan? Constituents who...
Malcolm Chisholm:
Lab
Tommy Sheridan has highlighted another part of the primary care reform agenda. Sometimes, people must go through too many stages before they reach the approp...
Mr David Davidson (North-East Scotland) (Con) rose—
Con
Malcolm Chisholm:
Lab
I had better keep going because time is passing at an alarming speed. Other examples include cancer care, stroke care, services for the elderly and mental he...
Nicola Sturgeon (Glasgow) (SNP):
SNP
The Scottish National Party is committed to developing and improving primary care. We support and endorse the report of the primary care modernisation group....
Malcolm Chisholm:
Lab
With respect, I think that I was clear about that issue. The GP and the patient will decide together, using the waiting times database, whether the patient s...
Nicola Sturgeon:
SNP
The problem is that many people in the front line in primary care would disagree with that. They say that they are in practice denied that power. I will come...
Malcolm Chisholm:
Lab
I will be brief. Currently, patients and those who refer them do not have the information and that is why the database is crucial. When the information is av...
Nicola Sturgeon:
SNP
That is how the Scottish Executive analyses the situation, but the British Medical Association analyses it differently. The BMA thinks that to give patients ...
Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con):
Con
The debate is interesting. I cannot quite make up my mind whether Malcolm Chisholm wants to admit that he has gone back to GP fundholding, devolved budgets a...
Malcolm Chisholm:
Lab
This is the first time that we have had a discussion on the issue. I welcome the discussion. We must be absolutely clear that when we talk about devolving fu...
Mary Scanlon:
Con
I am pleased that the minister agrees with some of what I said.The minister said that he is passionately committed to primary care. GPs in the Highlands are ...
Malcolm Chisholm:
Lab
I am sure that Mary Scanlon does not need reminding that no new money has been allocated over and above what has already been announced, which is an increase...
Mary Scanlon:
Con
We need only look at the figures to see what is happening. The proof of the pudding will be when GPs and others stop walking away from the health minister. W...
The Deputy Presiding Officer:
SNP
Order. I will not allow the private dialogues that are taking place behind the member who is making her speech.
Mary Scanlon:
Con
Mike Rumbles could not behave if he tried, but we have got used to that.The Highlands did well out of the Arbuthnott formula, which provided additional fundi...
Tommy Sheridan (Glasgow) (SSP):
SSP
The Minister for Health and Community Care said that his speech was a statement on the direction of travel in which the NHS is moving and the direction of th...
Mr Davidson:
Con
Is Tommy Sheridan proposing that we nationalise all the services provided by community pharmacies, dentists and everyone else? They are all private sector co...
Tommy Sheridan:
SSP
The member will be aware of my position in relation to pharmacies and the pharmaceutical industry. GlaxoSmithKline announced its profits only last week. It i...
The Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care (Hugh Henry):
Lab
I will attempt to answer some of the questions put by Tommy Sheridan, but it would help me in trying to frame those answers if he could indicate exactly what...
Tommy Sheridan:
SSP
I am specifically proposing a number of things, to which I hope the minister will reply. One of them is that we end the moonlighting of consultants, which ha...
Mr Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD):
LD
Where is all the money for those plans to come from? I am still waiting for Tommy Sheridan to respond to my last intervention on him, when he promised that h...
Tommy Sheridan:
SSP
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Mrs Margaret Smith (Edinburgh West) (LD):
LD
I am not quite sure how to follow that. We often get fantasy politics from Tommy Sheridan; this morning we got fantasy pharmaceuticals. The idea that the cou...
Tommy Sheridan rose—
SSP
Mrs Smith:
LD
Tommy has had enough of a chance. The drugs companies would come back at us for doing as Tommy suggests, and the cost of existing drugs would go through the ...