Hansard

I am pleased to be summing up for Labour and supporting Labour’s amendment, following what has been, for the most part, a consensual debate that has allowed the Parliament to acknowledge the debt of gratitude that we owe to the men and women of our emergency services, whether they are fully employed by the major blue-light or uniformed services or are part-time workers, such as volunteer fire service workers. Mike MacKenzie told us that he used to be a volunteer firefighter, and Alison McInnes pointed out that volunteer firefighters make up 40 per cent of our service. I include those who employ their professional skills in a voluntary capacity, such as the doctors in BASICS—the British Association for Immediate Care Scotland, which has not been mentioned today but which supports the police, ambulance and fire services in relation to road accidents, and volunteers such as the first responders, whom Roderick Campbell talked about.

Many of the members who have spoken have done so based on their personal contact with or political experience of disasters. Patricia Ferguson spoke graphically about Stockline and reminded us of the consequences of delays in FAIs and the impact not only on those who have suffered but on the emergency services. A number of members, such as Hanzala Malik and Colin Beattie, spoke about the Clutha disaster; Paul Martin spoke about the recent George Square disaster; Gil Paterson spoke about the incident in Clydebank; and Elaine Murray reminded us of the recent events in Paris, in which the army and various types of police were involved, and of the Glasgow School of Art fire.

From all those accounts, what is clear to me is the huge professionalism of our core services and the ability of various organisations to deploy their particular skills in the seamless and co-ordinated way that Christine Grahame graphically described in relation to the River Teviot incident.

However, linking volunteers with those core services is also vital. For example, there are 95 BASICS medics connected to the Scottish Ambulance Service, and that sort of connection is important.

In the past few days, we have heard of Pauline Cafferkey’s improvement, and we should, today of all days, pay tribute to those from the health and fire services who volunteer to work at international disaster sites. Tsunamis, earthquakes and the flooding that results from climate change, such as the flooding in Malawi that we heard about during today’s First Minister’s question time, affect countries that do not have the resources to tackle the consequences. Our volunteers play a vital role in that regard. Médecins Sans Frontières, which I am a particular advocate of and is the British Medical Association’s Christmas charity, is working in Syria, north Pakistan and west Africa in circumstances that we can only think about. We cannot imagine what those workers have to face on a daily basis.

I will not dwell on accident and emergency staff today, but I will say that anyone who has witnessed a busy shift—more and more shifts fall into that category—must applaud the nurses, doctors and other staff in our A and E departments. This is not just a winter issue; this is now an all-year-round issue.

I recently visited our only charitable air ambulance, which is based in Scone, in my constituency. Before the service got under way, people asked whether it would be fully utilised and whether we needed it in addition to the two NHS air ambulances. This is one of the few political points that I will make in my speech. The air ambulances flew 3,427 sorties last year and are becoming essential to our service. With the major trauma units about to come on stream, we will need more air ambulance provision, not less, and if the Kerr and Christie reports are acted on, rationalisation, primarily for patients’ safety and only secondly for cost effectiveness, will demonstrate that need. As elective procedures are carried out in one hospital and all acute cases are handled in another hospital, the acute cases will need that transport. Therefore, I encourage members to support the charitable air ambulance service.

Whenever we list all the emergency services, some groups are inevitably left out. For example, I would not have thought of the farmers without Graeme Dey’s excellent description of the work that they do on our behalf. Jackson Carlaw also reminded us of those who are usually unsung, such as those who work for GCHQ, whose work often goes unrecognised. I would add to the list—as Elaine Murray did—civilian support staff. I am glad that we have, as a country, albeit belatedly, recognised the Bevin boys and the Arctic merchant seamen, who were important individuals during the war but who have only recently been recognised.

Jackson Carlaw referred to the unacceptable behaviour of hoax callers, and Paul Martin reminded us that, after listening to emergency service staff, we legislated for those who had been physically abused. Listening is important.

I join Alison McInnes and others in praising the electricity supply workers who have worked tirelessly in the recent past to reconnect supplies in remote areas. I also join in the thanks to Network Rail and transport staff for their efforts in the past few days to keep our rail and road systems functioning.

Many members, such as Roderick Campbell, have spoken eloquently about their local services and their personal experiences. Patricia Ferguson gave us the image of firefighters going up a tower block as she and her family were coming down. That resonated strongly with me. On one occasion, I received the support of a voluntary fire service officer in my practice. I had been called on to talk a mentally ill patient down from a ledge on the main street in Bridge of Allan but, having a fear of heights at that time, which I fortunately do not have now, I was terrified. The officer, who was about half my size and half the size of my patient, successfully managed to help us both to get down—my patient did not jump—so I owe that service a personal debt.

The cabinet secretary, Hugh Henry and others have referred to the mountain rescue service, and I will not add to their significant descriptions. Although 25 lives may have been lost in a year, how many more were saved? Many people owe their lives to the 1,000 volunteers.

Jamie McGrigor talked about his own family’s experience of the RNLI, which must surely be one of the best examples of a voluntary service. As Mike MacKenzie asked, who among us would go out on the sea in storms such as the weather bomb that we experienced recently?

St Andrew’s First Aid and the British Red Cross are another two organisations that not only respond but attend many sporting and other events where one never knows what is going to happen. They also train others in basic first aid, so they spread the emergency service. In Bridge of Allan primary school, in my constituency, I was delighted recently to present training certificates to the teachers, who will now train the pupils in cardiopulmonary resuscitation. If we spread those skills among our community, we increase the resilience of our community, so schemes such as that one, which is supported by the British Heart Foundation, are important.

Our amendment asks that the Parliament go beyond warm words, and in funding the core services we do that. Nevertheless, this is about resilience, and we should interact directly with our front-line staff. I will not instruct committees to undertake inquiries, but I will ask the Health and Sport Committee to invite front-line staff—not just the mangers, whom we have already interviewed about resilience—to give evidence. As some members have said, we must take the time to listen to those front-line staff, even given our committees’ crowded agendas.

I will make two further points, one philosophical and one practical. In Scotland, we have a unique funding approach in support of our hospices, which is based on a promise that was made 30 years ago that the Government would match, pound for pound, every pound that the public contributes. That is controlled by budgets and things, but it is basically still the situation 30 years on. It is my belief that, in an era in which authority and Government have increasingly small standing, taking that approach to some of our volunteer services would renew a partnership between Government and people. If the funds that are raised for the Loch Awe scheme were matched by the Government, that would send a message to that community that we value what it is doing and want to support it.

That suggestion is contained in a very good discussion paper published by the Carnegie UK Trust that is entitled “The Enabling State”. It is by Sir John Elvidge, one of our foremost former civil servants. I commend the suggestion to members as a way in which the state can support our communities.

The other issue that I want to mention is born out of my experience. In treating a police officer years after the Lockerbie disaster, I recognised that he was suffering from unrecognised post-traumatic stress disorder. Alison McInnes mentioned the number of police officers who are off with stress. We need to be mindful of the effect on men and women in our emergency services. As well as putting themselves at immediate risk, they can pay a heavy price psychologically. We must be open about that and ensure that they know that we recognise the problem and will support them.