Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 15 September 2021 (Hybrid)
15 Sep 2021 · S6 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
General Practitioner Services
I am delighted to open the debate for the Scottish Conservatives on a motion on the return of normal GP services. We on these benches have called for this debate on an issue that is causing serious concern in communities across Scotland.
Let us be clear that national health service staff, including GPs, have worked flat out every single day to keep our services afloat. Throughout the pandemic, GPs have demonstrated their incredible resilience, whether in adapting to virtual settings or continuing to see the most vulnerable patients face to face. However, it is important to be clear that the NHS continues to be at crisis point. Whether it be enormous accident and emergency delays, ambulance services stretched to the limit or waiting times for diagnostic tests going through the roof, many services are completely overwhelmed.
I am sure that we were all astounded to hear the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care declare just this morning that people should think twice before calling an ambulance.
In the same item of business
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Annabelle Ewing)
SNP
I am required to remind members that social distancing measures are in place in the chamber and across the Holyrood campus. I ask that members take care to o...
Annie Wells (Glasgow) (Con)
Con
I am delighted to open the debate for the Scottish Conservatives on a motion on the return of normal GP services. We on these benches have called for this de...
The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care (Humza Yousaf)
SNP
Annie Wells says that she is astounded. A tweet by the Scottish Ambulance Service yesterday said: “We’re facing an unprecedented period of significant and s...
Annie Wells
Con
As the health secretary, Humza Yousaf has influence in this country—people listen to him. What happens if someone has a medical emergency? Do they remember w...
The Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport (Maree Todd)
SNP
The past 18 months has been a time of unprecedented pressure in the NHS, as it has faced the biggest challenge of its 73-year existence. Cleaners adopted new...
Sue Webber (Lothian) (Con)
Con
During the pandemic, many other healthcare professionals—optometrists, pharmacists, nurses—saw patients face to face. Does the minister not believe that now ...
Maree Todd
SNP
Let me be clear that any suggestion that GPs are not seeing people face to face because they do not want to is false, and I absolutely reject it. As our reco...
Douglas Ross (Highlands and Islands) (Con)
Con
The minister has spoken a lot about communities. She wrote to me earlier this summer to say that the independent review of maternity services at Dr Gray’s ho...
Maree Todd
SNP
I have not received that report yet, but I will organise meetings with Douglas Ross, Richard Lochhead and other interested local MSPs as soon as I do. We wil...
Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab)
Lab
Yesterday, we debated the extent of the crisis that is being experienced by the NHS, with services struggling to meet demand and waiting lists at a record hi...
The Presiding Officer
NPA
The member is in her last minute.
Jackie Baillie
Lab
More and more people are going private. In effect, the Government is privatising the dental service by the back door. We all value the primary care team, wh...
Alex Cole-Hamilton (Edinburgh Western) (LD)
LD
As my colleagues across the chamber have done, I start by paying tribute not just to our GPs but to their practice managers, their nurses and everyone who su...
Humza Yousaf
SNP
I have two points to make. As the member knows, Public Health Scotland published guidance, probably last week, that reduced the physical distancing measures....
Alex Cole-Hamilton
LD
I absolutely welcome the intervention of the BMA on that point. It is the interruption in the flow of face-to-face consultations that is causing a backlog an...
Sandesh Gulhane (Glasgow) (Con)
Con
Our NHS is in crisis. It is not simply under extreme pressure, as the First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care say. The NHS in Sco...
Stuart McMillan (Greenock and Inverclyde) (SNP)
SNP
The Conservative motion is very short and simple. It says: “That the Parliament recognises that patients have a right to treatment by GPs, and calls on the ...
Finlay Carson (Galloway and West Dumfries) (Con)
Con
I am sure that the member will join me in giving heartfelt thanks to our GPs right across the country. In Dumfries and Galloway, GPs are seeing more patients...
Stuart McMillan
SNP
I certainly disagree with Mr Carson—I am sure that he will not be surprised by that. In his comments earlier today and yesterday, Dr Gulhane indicated that ...
The Presiding Officer
NPA
The member is winding up.
Stuart McMillan
SNP
It is clear that face-to-face appointments will be better for many patients, but the NHS Near Me video consultations will be better for others. It was not t...
Carol Mochan (South Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
Like many members, I have been inundated with requests from constituents who want to return to face-to-face GP consultations. For the most part, people simpl...
Bob Doris (Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn) (SNP)
SNP
Will the member give way?
Carol Mochan
Lab
I will.
The Presiding Officer
NPA
The member is closing.
Carol Mochan
Lab
Sorry, Presiding Officer. This should be a lesson about proactivity rather than reactivity. Let us not wait until something becomes a media scandal before w...
Rachael Hamilton (Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (Con)
Con
I congratulate Carol Mochan—she gave a fantastic speech, as did all the other Opposition speakers. It seems that SNP members have no idea what is going on ou...
Bob Doris
SNP
Will the member give way?
Rachael Hamilton
Con
Will the member just allow me to finish my first paragraph? It is no wonder that I am contacted regularly, particularly by old and vulnerable constituents w...
Bob Doris
SNP
I wanted to make this point during the previous speech. Recruitment, retention and support for GPs have been on-going issues for some time, not just in Scotl...