Hansard

I saw your words on a Scottish Government press release on a website just yesterday afternoon—although, having said that, I should make it clear, Presiding Officer, that they were not your words, but the words of the cabinet secretary.

Our dedicated front-line NHS staff strive to provide second-to-none care for every patient and deserve our respect, and it is incumbent on the Scottish Government to look at the waiting times in our A and E units and act swiftly on behalf of our patients and NHS staff. That is why the Lib Dems have been calling on the Government to stand behind the principles of accountability and openness with regard to A and E waiting times.

By releasing weekly figures to the public, the Government will, of course, be subject to tougher and more rigorous scrutiny, but I think that that will ultimately improve areas where we know that some of our A and E units are failing. The benefits for patients will be obvious but, equally, addressing problem areas quickly with support for staff will go a long way towards taking pressure off staff and, I believe, boosting morale.

It is critical that the new-found transparency is accompanied by real action from the Government to support our great NHS staff so that they can continue to provide the best care for patients. That is the crux of the new and revised Lib Dem amendment today. The weekly information will enable us to see the extent of the growing A and E waiting times, and where action is needed. We have seen a growing number of people waiting for more than four hours in some departments. We know about the recent incident at the Royal Alexandra hospital in Paisley, where a special support team was sent to provide help to the A and E section, and the Government claimed that that was a responsible move. In Glasgow two weeks ago, patients had to wait up to 20 hours in a portakabin to be seen at the Victoria infirmary.

We do not want that happening in other areas of Scotland. The severe understaffing and under-resourcing in those situations were hidden in the vast figures of monthly ISD statistics; the health secretary must not be allowed to hide behind a wall of figures. Ultimately, through weekly publishing, the Government will quite rightly be held accountable more swiftly, meaning that staff and patients can have confidence that an open conversation with MSPs, patients and NHS staff can be had in order to identify and target where help and support for workers is most needed, through flexible resources, more accountability and better management of resources.

It is a move supported by health professionals. The BMA stated that the NHS faces pressure in the A and E units because of

“wider pressures across the NHS, which is struggling to cope with rising demand in the face of increasing numbers of elderly people with multiple health conditions, alongside constrained resources.”

It becomes even more necessary to allow for the movement of information, and I urge the health secretary to engage fully on the issues that we know are problem areas in the NHS.

The Royal College of Nursing Scotland’s senior officer said:

“Many nursing staff working in Glasgow have been in contact with us to let us know how worried they are and concerned about how they can care for patients safely when there are so few staff and equipment is in such short supply.”

There are also warnings of delayed discharges and delayed operations.

The Government must improve its record on A and E waiting times. I am sure that we all want that. Westminster has done it recently and I am delighted that the cabinet secretary has now agreed with the Lib Dems to publish weekly figures. However, it should be a reminder to the Scottish Government that it needs to take heed of what those at the front line of the NHS are saying on the wider issues of sustainable staffing and resourcing for the long term. Geriatric beds have been cut by a third since 2010, boarding has soared to 3,000 and our hospitals are being bottle-necked. In the past two years, 16,500 NHS staff have been signed off work with mental health issues.

A and E weekly reporting is one aspect. It is now vital that, going forward, the Scottish Government outline what measures it will take in targeting the pinch points that we know exist in our A and E departments, and long-term staffing and resourcing must be key to that. I look for support for the Liberal Democrat amendment across the chamber.

I move amendment S4M-12325.1, to insert at end:

“; welcomes the Scottish Government’s decision to abandon its objections to the publication of weekly A&E waiting times, after considerable pressure from across the Parliament, and calls on the Scottish Government to set out how it will use the new information, in partnership with local communities, to improve waiting times across Scotland”.