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Meeting of the Parliament 19 September 2012

19 Sep 2012 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Patient Care

Carlaw, Jackson Con West Scotland Watch on SPTV

We are not here to debate Wales; we are not here to debate the national health service in England; and we are not even here any longer—after six years—to debate the record of the last Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition on health. We are here to debate the record of the Government that has been in office for the past six years with responsibility for health. I came to the debate minded to support the Government’s amendment, if carried, this afternoon. However, in view of the performances that I have heard from the SNP front bench and the intervention from Kevin Stewart that was, frankly, arrogant, smug and belligerent, we will now vote against the motion if it is amended.

I am not here to say that the record of the last Labour Government was wonderful. It is known that we felt that Nicola Sturgeon was an effective cabinet secretary—I still find it surprising that Nye Bevan should be removed from office, with all the challenges that the health service faces. We supported the decisions to reverse the accident and emergency department cuts that were proposed and we believe that the previous health secretary was effective in a crisis. We have paid tribute to much of the work that the previous Government did, but that is not to endorse every action and every statist, Stalinist opposition to innovation in the health service.

When the minister waxes on about the additional funds that he has made available to the health service, it is important to say that the last Labour UK Government and the current Conservative UK Government have made sure that health has been protected at Westminster and that consequentials have come to the Scottish Government that have allowed that health spending to be sustained. It has not been some great virtuous act by the Scottish Government; it has been replicated across the whole UK and has led to the UK ensuring that Scotland has had additional funding.

The Scottish Government turned its back on ways within that budget to manage its finances efficiently. We regretted the decision to reject the findings of the pilot at Stracathro hospital that was led by the last Labour-Liberal Democrat Administration, which allowed the independent sector to release £2 million to reduce waiting times exclusively for the NHS, infection free, by undertaking operations more cheaply than would otherwise have been the case. What was the objection to finding an efficiency of that character within the health service to release funds that could be reinvested in patient care? It was an objection of dogma. We also opposed—we were alone in doing so, but for good reason—moving to free prescriptions. We did so not because we objected ultimately to the principle, but because we knew that every pound that was diverted to that priority had to come from a priority elsewhere in the health service.

I will not stand here and be accused of saying that everything that the SNP Government has done on health has been bad. I do not believe that. I do not believe that Mr Neil, Mr Matheson or Shona Robison—

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Meeting of the Parliament 19 September 2012

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