Hansard

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Annabelle Ewing) SNP

The next item of business is a debate on motion S6M-06702, in the name of Gillian Martin, on behalf of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, on its in...

Gillian Martin (Aberdeenshire East) (SNP) SNP

As the convener of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, I am pleased to open the debate on the committee’s inquiry into alternative pathways to prima...

The Deputy Presiding Officer SNP

I remind members who wish to speak in the debate to check that they have pressed their request-to-speak button. 15:06

The Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport (Maree Todd) SNP

As the public health minister, I welcome the opportunity to open this debate on alternative pathways to primary care. I commend the committee for its timely ...

Martin Whitfield (South Scotland) (Lab) Lab

Are we are aware of how many full-time-equivalent GPs currently deliver primary care in the NHS? Are we aware of how many full-time-equivalent community link...

Maree Todd SNP

I can get that data for the member. I am sure that the cabinet secretary will include it in his summing up. I know that we have increased the number of GPs w...

Sandesh Gulhane (Glasgow) (Con) Con

Primary care is the backbone of the NHS, and it is at breaking point. With increasing demands and limited capacity, it is in a perpetual extreme winter. The ...

Emma Harper (South Scotland) (SNP) SNP

Some of what the member is saying is interesting, and some of it is in the report. However, it seems as if what he is proposing is not what the report was ab...

Sandesh Gulhane Con

I am referring to the professionals whom I am in contact with every day. This debate is about alternative pathways; it is not purely about the report that wa...

Carol Mochan (South Scotland) (Lab) Lab

I take this opportunity to thank all my colleagues on the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee for the work that they put into the report. I am pleased to...

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care (Humza Yousaf) SNP

I thank Carol Mochan for taking an intervention during what I think is a really helpful speech. If we have to mitigate £650 million of inflationary pressure ...

Carol Mochan Lab

The cabinet secretary will know that I absolutely agree that one of the biggest challenges that we face in Scotland is the current climate of austerity from ...

Willie Rennie (North East Fife) (LD) LD

I will come to the pretty impressive committee report, but we simply cannot ignore the context. I have never seen primary care in the state that it is in now...

Gillian Martin SNP

Will the member take an intervention?

Willie Rennie LD

I will not just now. The reasons include refusing for years to recruit enough GPs, cutting the number of nurse training places, failing to eradicate delayed...

Gillian Martin SNP

Will the member give way?

Willie Rennie LD

The member should listen to this list. It is important. The reasons include undervaluing of social care year after year after year, and delaying the mental ...

Maree Todd SNP

I wonder, as I listen to Willie Rennie’s litany of failures by the SNP Government, whether he has reflected, at all, on his party’s role in bringing in auste...

Willie Rennie LD

We must pray that, at some point, the SNP Government will accept responsibility for its own powers and its decisions over the past 15 years, including what w...

Gillian Martin SNP

Will the member give way?

Willie Rennie LD

I am sorry, I do not have time.

Gillian Martin SNP

As the convener of the committee—

Willie Rennie LD

No. I am sorry: I am not taking an intervention. From my discussions with the police and GPs, I think that there is very little evidence that the action on ...

Gillian Martin SNP

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. Speaking as the convener of the committee that produced the report, I say that it is very frustrating when members c...

The Deputy Presiding Officer SNP

I thank Ms Martin for her point of order. The debate is focused on the “Alternative pathways to primary care” report, but it is quite a wide subject area and...

Willie Rennie LD

I understand why SNP members do not want to talk about this stuff, because their failure over the past 15 years has been lamentable. It has been a disgrace a...

Paul McLennan (East Lothian) (SNP) SNP

I thank Gillian Martin and her committee colleagues for producing the report for debate and I thank the clerks for their help. In the time that I have toda...

Craig Hoy (South Scotland) (Con) Con

Will the member take an intervention?

Paul McLennan SNP

Yes.

Craig Hoy Con

Inaudible.