Meeting of the Parliament 10 June 2015
There is a great consensus in all the reports that we have seen about the shift to preventative spend. We will approach the public debate with a programme of what we would like to see and to discuss, but I do not think that we can second-guess the outcome of the public conversation that the royal colleges called for last week. However, I think that, as the member knows, the evidence is there on preventative spend.
I have every confidence that the people of Scotland will make the right decisions when presented with the facts about the health service. With the public engaged, the professionals consulted and the politicians in agreement, we could have a process completed in six months, which would set out guiding principles and changes for the future.
We should take cognisance of reports and reviews that have been prepared in past years. We should take our present experience and focus firmly on the health service that we want. Ahead of the 2016 Scottish Parliament elections, we could get agreement across parties on a road map so that, no matter what election result or political outcome, we can have confidence that our NHS will be moving towards a sound and sustainable footing.
The accusation from the BMA report and the royal colleges that, in the past, politics has obscured the best way forward for the health service is one that we should all reflect on. I am sure that we can all think of examples of situations in which populism or political opportunity has overridden the desire to do what we know is best for our NHS, and we should all take some collective responsibility for that. Given the scale of the challenge that we face in reshaping the health service, we can no longer afford that indulgence. An opportunity exists for us to move past that point in the best interests of the people of Scotland, the sick and the vulnerable.
So far, the cabinet secretary has responded in a positive way to those calls and she can be sure that, as health spokesperson for the largest Opposition party in the Parliament, I will do my job of holding her Government to account. When she and her Government get it wrong, it is our responsibility to stand up for those who suffer the consequences, but when she is prepared to be brave and bold in making the changes that need to be made in the interests of Scotland, I will be the first to be in agreement with her. That is the opportunity that this process presents.
I hope that the cabinet secretary will tell us how she proposes to ensure that we have the necessary engagement between the public, the professionals and politicians for the good of the country’s health. The challenge that we face is a tough one but one that we should welcome. The fact that people are living longer is a triumph for society and for progress, and we should treasure the extra years with our parents and grandparents, whose experience and wisdom are irreplaceable. We should approach the task of reshaping our national health service to meet the challenges of today with optimism and ambition, in the same way that those who created our NHS did nearly seven decades ago.
I move,
That the Parliament commends the hard work of staff at every level of NHS Scotland and Scotland’s care services; recognises that delivering the healthcare that the Parliament would want for the people of Scotland in a time of straitened budgets and an ageing population presents one of the country’s biggest challenges; further recognises that NHS boards and staff across the country are finding it increasingly difficult to meet some of these key challenges; notes the recent report commissioned by the BMA Scottish consultants committee, which questions the future sustainability of the NHS unless more resources are found; further notes the report, Building a More Sustainable NHS in Scotland, by the medical and nursing royal colleges speaking for the first time in a single voice, insisting that transformation is needed to put the NHS on a sustainable footing and calling for “a genuine public debate on change”; welcomes the comments this week by the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Sport that she wants to “look beyond short-term demands and foster a consensus around how we best manage our NHS to ensure it meets the considerable challenges of the future”, and looks forward to the Scottish Government setting out a process that involves all political parties, professionals and the public in how to improve the health, care and wellbeing of Scotland.
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