Meeting of the Parliament 04 February 2015
The Government is making clear progress on the implementation of the living wage, and I would have thought that Mr Findlay could have welcomed that.
The health of our population and the education of our young people are two of the Government’s most important responsibilities. Our overall investment in the national health service is building a health service fit for the 21st century. As a result of our front-line investment, patient satisfaction has increased, with 85 per cent of people—an increase of 4 per cent—either fairly or very satisfied with their local health services. Hospitals are cleaner, with MRSA cases reduced by 89 per cent since 2007; more than 600,000 patients have been treated within the 12-week treatment time guarantee; and under the Scottish National Party Government, full-time NHS staff numbers have increased by more than 9,600. According to figures for accident and emergency waiting times that have been released this week, nine out of 10 people were seen within four hours between October and December 2014, and 99 per cent of all A and E attendees were admitted, discharged or transferred within eight hours. That record is better than performance in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
We have also protected our hospitals. Accident and emergency departments at Monklands and Ayr remain open and since 2007 have handled 827,000 attendances; this year, we will sign contracts for a new Edinburgh royal hospital for sick children and for Dumfries and Galloway royal infirmary; and last week, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde took ownership of the new £842 million south Glasgow hospitals, which will transform the delivery of acute healthcare in the west of Scotland. That has been achieved by our commitment to the NHS, by the hard work of every member of NHS staff and through the fair funding of Scotland’s health services.
In October, I announced that we would not only pass on the £202 million of consequentials to the NHS but invest more. We have now gone even further. A vote for the budget will see £127 million of extra spending for front-line healthcare in our national health service, taking our total additional investment for 2015-16 to £383 million.
The Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Sport has confirmed that £98 million of those additional resources will boost the funding for territorial boards and tackle delayed discharge. I further announce that the balance of that extra spending will be used to establish a performance fund of £31.5 million in 2015-16 to improve the quality of care and to reduce waiting times.
Scotland’s health service will continue to have the benefit of a Government that supports and funds it properly. Our front-line fund for the NHS is not £100 million; it is more than £12 billion. That is real investment in the national health service.