Meeting of the Parliament 21 May 2014
He is the man who has worked in partnership with the Parliament’s Health and Sport Committee to develop a vastly improved system of access to new medicines in Scotland for end-of-life and orphan and ultra-orphan conditions. He values people and has meaningfully changed the lives of constituents right across Scotland.
Let me tell the chamber more about the Alex Neil I know. He has introduced a workforce planning tool that is leading to an increase in nursing numbers right across Scotland and which ensures that they are in the right place and the right job—[Interruption.] I hear heckling, but I have to say that the constituents whom I represent prefer a quality NHS to the bluff and bluster of the Labour benches.
Let me tell the chamber why I think that this is just bluff, bluster and political opportunism. On 24 January 2013, an article in the Evening Times reported:
“On September 26, Mr Neil asked officials to make his long-standing concerns about the proposed reconfiguration of mental health services across Lanarkshire known to the NHS board. His view was that acute mental health facilities would be best retained at Wishaw General and Monklands hospitals, and with a unit at Hairmyres.”
The exact same content that was in the email is now apparently a smoking gun. There is nothing new in any of this.
With this information available, I have to say that Alex Neil was perfectly fit for purpose 15 months ago. He was fit for purpose as a health secretary 10 months ago, and he was fit for purpose as a good-quality health secretary five months ago. The only thing that has happened in the past week is the Labour Party grandstanding for cheap party-political points.