Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 20 January 2021
I welcome that intervention. I think that the people who are managing staff then revert back to Government guidance, and the Government guidance is out of date. Home carers today are going into people’s homes to look after people who have Covid. Those carers have a basic mask and apron in a home environment that is poorly ventilated, and they feel that it is a game of Russian roulette. I am glad that we have had that commitment from the cabinet secretary, because those are the issues that real people are telling us about every single day. Let us get it right for front-line workers.
In the interests of time, I will move on. We need the vaccine roll-out to be faster. We need to listen to professionals on the front line about how we can resolve delays when they occur. I welcome the amendment from Donald Cameron, which emphasises that point. Concerns have been raised with me this week by a general practitioner. She says:
“As a GP we are all concerned about the slowness at which vaccines are coming out to practices, the constant changing timetable of when they will come, and the marked disparity between different areas across Scotland. This uncertainty is not helping planning.
Patients are also unhappy they may be waiting weeks longer than people they know the same age. And now the government are stating we will be rolling it out to over 70s and highest risk groups “in the next few days.
General practice is ready to deliver, we know we can from long experience with flu vaccines, but we need the actual vaccines and a reliable supply to do so.”
I know that vaccines were a talking point at First Minister’s question time today. The issue is of interest to everyone in the chamber. Let us listen to the workers and show them that we all mean business and that the Government will not just brush away people’s concerns but will act on them.
We should not be in a position in which the national health service can respond only to Covid and little else. We need to address the issue urgently, because the risk of long-term damage to Scotland’s physical and mental health is becoming more challenging by the day. PPE and vaccine roll-out are crucial, not only to ensure Covid-safe workplaces but to prevent staff absences because of the virus. People in the NHS workforce are at an increased risk of contracting the virus, and staff shortages caused by the virus or self-isolation are putting more pressure on the health service.
We have heard from the president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Professor Mike Griffin, who said that the increasing numbers of people off work is a “major problem”, especially in the west of Scotland, where we already have high levels of health inequality.
I began by paying tribute to our health and care workers, and I want to end by doing so again. We cannot get through the pandemic without them. We need to support them, and not just with warm words and hand claps. We need quicker action on PPE, rapid vaccination and continued testing. I hope that the other parties will support the motion.
I move,
That the Parliament agrees that getting Scotland vaccinated against COVID-19 is the country's national priority and thanks all staff involved in the roll-out; notes the concern of the British Medical Association that inoculation targets are in danger of being missed due to “red tape” and “patchy supplies”; believes that home-care staff should be given the same priority for testing and vaccination as other frontline healthcare staff and calls for the healthcare workforce to receive both vaccine doses no later than the end of February; notes with serious concern the extreme pressure on the NHS as COVID-19 hospital admissions have increased during the second wave and as an increasing numbers of patients are catching COVID-19 in hospital; believes that the cancellation of elective procedures, delays to treatment and continued long waits for care are devastating for patients and that these are creating a backlog of clinical demand from which the NHS will take years to recover; considers that further urgent preventative measures are required to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in healthcare settings, to maintain patient and staff safety and to protect non-COVID healthcare services, and calls on the Scottish Government to enhance the PPE recommendations and provide access to at least FFP3 masks and eye protection for all patient-facing healthcare staff, to maximise protection against all known and emerging variants of the virus.