Hansard

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...