Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 18 January 2023
18 Jan 2023 · S6 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
National Health Service and Social Care
It was not. This Government proactively offered that.
As I have outlined in recent weeks and months, including to the Parliament in that statement last week, this is by any objective measure the most challenging period that Scotland’s NHS has ever faced—and, I suspect, that NHS systems across the United Kingdom have ever faced. We recognise those unprecedented pressures and we put forward a series of actions, which were announced last October, to help our NHS and social care through this very challenging winter.
As I said, Scotland is not alone. Those challenges are being faced not just across the United Kingdom, but in health services around the world. We have encountered the perfect storm of pressures and it is impacting on our health and social care systems.
One of those impacts is noticeably lacking in the motion. There is not a single mention in the Labour motion of Covid-19, which is still exerting enormous pressure on our health service. Not for the first time in the current parliamentary session, Scottish Labour has brought to the chamber a debate about pressures in the health service and has failed to mention the word “pandemic”. To ignore the pandemic and its impacts is to ignore reality.
In the same item of business
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Liam McArthur)
LD
The next item of business is a debate on motion S6M-07538, in the name of Jackie Baillie, on addressing the crisis in the national health service and social ...
Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab)
Lab
In opening the debate on the future of the NHS and social care in Scotland, I also want to talk about how we deal with the current crisis. However, I cannot ...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
LD
Please speak through the chair, Ms Baillie.
John Mason (Glasgow Shettleston) (SNP)
SNP
Does Jackie Baillie accept that she is exaggerating somewhat? Some parts of the NHS are clearly struggling, but other parts are doing very well.
Jackie Baillie
Lab
I thank John Mason for his intervention, but he might like to note that I quoted the words of Dr Iain Kennedy, the chair of BMA Scotland. He is not exaggerat...
The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care (Humza Yousaf)
SNP
Will Jackie Baillie listen to the head of the BMA’s general practitioners committee in Scotland? Dr Andrew Buist said that he “was not at all convinced by” ...
Jackie Baillie
Lab
This is fascinating. This is the cabinet secretary who is presiding over the collapse of the NHS in Scotland, yet he wants to talk about the NHS in England. ...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
LD
Ms Baillie, will you resume your seat for a second? We are barely five minutes into the debate and we are already having accusations levelled through the us...
Jackie Baillie
Lab
Thank you, Presiding Officer. The SNP turns its back on Scotland’s front-line medics and nurses, while we are listening to their concerns and their ideas fo...
The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care (Humza Yousaf)
SNP
I welcome the chance to respond to the motion on the pressures that the NHS and social care are facing. I remind Jackie Baillie and Scottish Labour that the ...
Jackie Baillie
Lab
I do not wish to be pedantic about it, but I believe that it was a statement that the Opposition had demanded that the cabinet secretary make.
Humza Yousaf
SNP
It was not. This Government proactively offered that. As I have outlined in recent weeks and months, including to the Parliament in that statement last week...
Alex Cole-Hamilton (Edinburgh Western) (LD)
LD
Will the cabinet secretary take an intervention?
Humza Yousaf
SNP
I will shortly. I am all for debate on our NHS, but the debate must be grounded in reality. Our entire health and social care system is still facing the con...
Alex Cole-Hamilton
LD
The cabinet secretary will be unsurprised by what I am about to say, because we have done this dance before. Of course there has been a global pandemic, and ...
Humza Yousaf
SNP
As I said, members cannot airbrush the impacts that the pandemic has had on our NHS. I pay tribute to the extraordinary efforts of our workforce across the ...
Michael Marra (North East Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
What would the cabinet secretary say to the senior clinician who said to me last week, “I am thinking of chucking it, to be honest. I actually do not know a...
Humza Yousaf
SNP
I speak to clinicians every day of the week; in fact, I spoke to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine today. What I would say to the individual who spoke ...
Monica Lennon (Central Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
Will the cabinet secretary take an intervention?
Humza Yousaf
SNP
If the member does not mind, I want to make some progress. I have taken a few interventions. I have announced £8 million to procure an additional 300 interi...
Monica Lennon
Lab
It is good to hear about the work that is intended to improve the situation, but the cabinet secretary knows as well as I do that, in Lanarkshire, we have ha...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
LD
Please begin to conclude, cabinet secretary.
Humza Yousaf
SNP
I absolutely think that we will see an improvement in Lanarkshire. I have spoken to the new chief executive, Jann Gardner, and I urge Monica Lennon to do so ...
Sandesh Gulhane (Glasgow) (Con)
Con
Well, after that speech, it is clear that the cabinet secretary just does not get it. Under this health secretary, our NHS is on its knees and is facing a pe...
Gillian Martin (Aberdeenshire East) (SNP)
SNP
Will the member take an intervention?
Sandesh Gulhane
Con
—the cabinet secretary committed to clearing waiting lists in both mental health and psychological therapies by March 2023. With more than 8,000 people waiti...
Bob Doris (Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn) (SNP)
SNP
Will the member give way on that point?
Sandesh Gulhane
Con
I am afraid that I have no time. Scots either have to sit back—
Bob Doris
SNP
Will the member give way on that point?
Sandesh Gulhane
Con
I was very clear, and I think that members should maybe listen. Scots either have to sit back, shut up and wait, or dig deep and go private to get basic heal...