Meeting of the Parliament 23 November 2022
The cabinet secretary should listen to his own questions. He is spending £1.5 billion on setting up a bureaucratic national care service. There we go—I have found his money.
We hear that senior management are concerned about a disconnect between political decision makers and clinicians. They speak of siloed conversations behind the Government’s closed doors, without the chief medical officer and chief nursing officer. The language is stark: senior management appear to have little confidence and little trust in this health secretary and think that his input and suggestions are
“divorced from reality of life and purpose of service.”
Members should let that sink in.
Primary care is the backbone of our health service and the NHS is at breaking point. There are increasing, unsustainable demands, there is limited capacity, and GPs are experiencing burnout and demoralisation. More and more doctors are at the end of their tether and are choosing to leave the profession.
Last year, the Scottish Government pledged a £30 million sustainability support package, but we instead saw a cut of £5 million to this year’s budget. Instead of grandstanding and talking about money that it does not have, or using money on its pet projects, the Scottish Government should fund the NHS properly.
Let me reiterate: every additional day that the cabinet secretary remains in office makes him and the SNP-Green Government that he serves even further divorced from reality. The SNP cannot be trusted on health. NHS staff and patients do not trust this cabinet secretary, and it seems that neither do senior NHS managers—he should do the right thing and step down.
I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests, as I am a practising NHS doctor.
I move amendment S6M-06899.1, to insert at end:
“, and finds it extremely concerning that there are siloed conversations within the Scottish Government occurring without the Chief Medical Officer or Chief Nursing Officer, and that there is a lack of clinical input into political decision-making, leading to Scottish Government announcements being divorced from the reality of life and purpose of the service.”
15:25Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.