Meeting of the Parliament 22 January 2015
This debate is an opportunity for the Parliament to share in the 2020 vision for Scotland’s national health service. That vision is not owned by politicians in the Parliament; it is owned by wider society, which rightly expects much from our NHS, and, of course, by health and social care professionals on the ground who have to deliver all the aspirations and outcomes that the Parliament wishes to see.
Previously, Labour has called for a wholesale review of the NHS. The SNP has consistently opposed that view for several reasons. I do not think that that has been referred to today, particularly by the Labour Party. The arguments are well rehearsed, and I will not repeat them, but I wonder whether, in reality, our positions are not that far apart and whether the hidden secret might be that a growing consensus is emerging on healthcare in Scotland.
The Scottish Government’s 2020 vision strategy is evidence of a system that is being kept under constant review. That is why it is being refreshed. The challenge, of course, is to ensure that we properly implement the aspirations of the 2020 vision across the NHS and, indeed, social care, in a co-ordinated and strategic way.
We all know that the NHS is complex. It is impossible to unpick accident and emergency waiting times from acute bed numbers, delayed discharges, or, indeed, social care provision in the community. All those matters and many more, including not least the size and skills base of our health and social care workforce, are inextricably linked. That makes the system at its heart complex, but we can make significant progress.
In that context, I want to look at acute bed numbers for a moment to illustrate my point. Before the SNP Government came to power in 2007, the then Labour Minister for Health and Community Care, Andy Kerr, said that there were “good reasons” for the reduction in acute beds. In 2011, Richard Simpson said on behalf of Labour that he “welcomed” the SNP dropping targets on acute beds. I could pull out quotes from Labour members that contradict that. However, I am not trying to make a party-political point; I am trying to illustrate a different point, which I will come on to.
As politicians, we rightly often focus on numbers and targets. The key debate on acute bed provision is not necessarily about whether we have, for instance, 15,000, 16,000 or 17,000 acute beds.