Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 19 February 2020
19 Feb 2020 · S5 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
National Health Service
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 undertakes throughout the lives of every person in this chamber. The change in population brings challenges. Long-term conditions and comorbidities all place significant demands on health and social care. That is one of the reasons why it is so vital, both for our society as a whole and for our health and care services in particular, that Scotland continues to attract people to come and work here.
Our health boards face difficulties in recruiting staff to specialisms in certain areas, and the Scottish Government works with them to try and address those challenges. Their job and ours is made harder because of the additional complexities imposed on us by Brexit, the United Kingdom Government’s changes to pension and taxation and potentially an even more draconian immigration system that looks likely to be imposed against Scotland’s needs and against Scotland’s choice.
In the same item of business
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.