Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 11 November 2020
I put on record my thanks to all our NHS and care staff who continue to fight the virus on the front line, and I send my condolences and love to all those who have lost a loved one.
We have had good news this week, with the prospect of a vaccine coming soon. However, let us be honest. Eight months into the pandemic—eight months—we still have not fixed testing and we still have not fixed test and protect. The question now is whether we will have a vaccine or fix testing and test and trace first; that is the race. The vaccine was meant to be the end game, but it might well rescue us from failed testing and test and trace programmes.
Week after week, the Government has been asked about testing. Week after week, we have had promises. Week after week, people have been let down. Premiership footballers get tested every single week, but NHS staff, care home staff and care-at-home staff do not. We have all been sent images of NHS staff receiving bin liners to wear as aprons, as part of their PPE. That is not fair. The system is not working.
I have been constructive with the cabinet secretary, in public and in private, but we have to call a spade a spade. Testing and test and protect are not working. That is simply not good enough, and the Government has to get a grip.
We have heard tragic stories about cancer services—stories that would not have happened if testing was sorted. We have heard tragic stories about people not being able to visit loved ones in care homes—stories that would not have happened if we had sorted testing. Only now are we restarting dental services; we would not have those problems if we had sorted testing. We would not have the problems that we have seen on many university campuses if we had sorted testing.
We have to get testing sorted ASAP. I am talking about mass testing and rapid testing; if it is good enough for Liverpool, it is good enough for Glasgow and the rest of Scotland.
The Government keeps saying that test and protect is working—the First Minister said so when I spoke about the issue in the chamber a couple of weeks ago. I am sorry. There is a big difference between the claim that has been made in the chamber that three quarters of people are successfully traced and tested and the fact, which is that the proportion is less than half. Test and protect is not working. Too many people are not traced, too many people do not get the phone call and too many people are not given the advice that they need if we are to beat this virus.
As Monica Lennon said, what is happening in our hospitals is unacceptable. This week, I received an email from a distraught son, who said that his father had shielded for seven months—his family had stayed away from him for seven months and he could not see his children and grandchildren—after which he went to hospital for a heart scan, caught Covid in hospital and died. How is that acceptable? It is simply unacceptable.
Getting the test and trace programme and testing right can help us to fix the problems. I thank the Government for its communications exercise. We expect the Government to be brilliant at communications and we thank it for that, but we need it to be good at beating the virus, too. I ask the Government, please, to fix the testing system and test and protect, so that we can save lives in Scotland.
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