Hansard

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Linda Fabiani) SNP

The next item of business is a debate on motion S5M-20882, in the name of Monica Lennon, on standing up for national health service staff and patients. 14:40

Monica Lennon (Central Scotland) (Lab) Lab

I am grateful for the opportunity to use Scottish Labour’s debate time to stand up for our NHS. The motion is titled “Standing up for NHS Staff and Patients”...

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport (Jeane Freeman) SNP

I am pleased to take part in the debate. We are all living longer lives now, and that is indeed good news. It is a testament to the work that our NHS underta...

Daniel Johnson (Edinburgh Southern) (Lab) Lab

I struggle to understand how increases in demand led to bad decision making regarding the building of two hospitals at both ends of the M8.

Jeane Freeman SNP

If I had been suggesting that, then I would have struggled along with the member. I am one minute and 13 seconds in to my speech, so give me a moment. Wher...

Monica Lennon Lab

Will the cabinet secretary give way?

Jeane Freeman SNP

No—let me finish. Three years ago, in February 2017, Labour announced that it was establishing an NHS workforce commission. Three years on, what is that com...

Monica Lennon Lab

We have been busy meeting the people who cannot get in front of the cabinet secretary, although she claims to have an open door. She made it a priority to es...

Jeane Freeman SNP

My response is absolutely none of those things, because that long list that Monica Lennon produced is a list of actions that we are taking—I have met those p...

Jeane Freeman SNP

I will take no more interventions.

The Deputy Presiding Officer SNP

Excuse me, ladies. You should not have private conversations and arguments across the chamber. Everything should come through me.

Jeane Freeman SNP

My apologies, Presiding Officer. Under this Government, since 2006-07, the annual resource investment in health has risen by 62.9 per cent, and our draft bu...

Edward Mountain (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Con

Will Jeane Freeman take an intervention?

Jeane Freeman SNP

No—I have a lot to get through. A 95 per cent performance rate for the 31-day cancer target has been met and improvements are coming through on the 62-day t...

Miles Briggs (Lothian) (Con) Con

Anyone out in the real world who has been watching the debate so far will think that the cabinet secretary does not have a grasp of what is going on in our h...

Jeane Freeman SNP

Will Miles Briggs accept two things and clarify one thing for me? First, does he accept that it was an SNP Government that abolished parking charges in those...

The Deputy Presiding Officer SNP

Mr Briggs can have extra time.

Miles Briggs Con

Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. On Jeane Freeman’s first point, yes, but that was not the case in three hospitals where NHS staff still have to pay ...

Alison Johnstone (Lothian) (Green) Green

I thank the Labour Party for bringing these issues to the chamber. Given the challenges that our health service has been facing in the past few months, the d...

John Mason (Glasgow Shettleston) (SNP) SNP

I agree with a lot of what the member says. Does she accept that we will need to disinvest in hospitals if we are going to put more money into the community?

Alison Johnstone Green

That is a big question, which I do not have time to cover in this debate. Health inequalities, which drive a great deal of the pressure on our NHS, continue...

Monica Lennon Lab

When Alison Johnstone mentioned Brian Houston’s resignation, the Minister for Mental Health rolled her eyes. Do we have complacency at the heart of Governmen...

The Minister for Mental Health (Clare Haughey) SNP

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I find the remarks that Monica Lennon has just made about me to be insulting. What my gestures are when I am not maki...

The Deputy Presiding Officer SNP

You have placed your feelings on the record, minister. We will now go back to Alison Johnstone.

Alison Johnstone Green

It is clear that people in management at NHS Lothian are not feeling wholly supported or valued. That is concerning in any workplace but, in our health servi...

Alex Cole-Hamilton (Edinburgh Western) (LD) LD

It often sounds slightly clichéd to begin a speech such as this one by thanking NHS staff, but I do thank them, because they have saved the lives of two of m...

John Mason SNP

Will the member take an intervention?

Alex Cole-Hamilton LD

Not at this time. I need to make some progress. I recognise that the departures of Tim Davison and Brian Houston, coming as they do, side by side, will crea...

James Dornan (Glasgow Cathcart) (SNP) SNP

Will the member take an intervention?

Alex Cole-Hamilton LD

I will take an intervention from James Dornan, if John Mason is not ready to intervene.