Meeting of the Parliament 16 January 2025
Indeed. Co-operatives are already used in rural areas. Crofting, which is the agricultural system in place in rural areas, is based on co-operative working. Many people know that they need to work co-operatively in rural areas simply in order to exist.
The report also highlights access to health and social care. There are many campaigns in the Highlands and Islands regarding access to health care, from the Caithness Health Action Team and the keep MUM—maternity unit for Moray—campaign, which fights for local maternity services, to the Hopeman and Burghead groups that campaign for local general practice surgeries. Those groups are not surprised by the commission’s report, but they are appreciative of it highlighting issues that they have been campaigning on for years.
Mental health services in the region are poor, especially for young people. The waiting list for child and adolescent mental health services in NHS Highland is stubbornly high, and services are provided centrally, which means that young people need to take more time away from school and make long journeys to access them. The costs of travel and accommodation are also barriers to accessing healthcare. We desperately need a review of the outdated patient travelling expenses scheme for reimbursements.
Many other issues are addressed by the Scottish Human Rights Commission report—more than I can do credit to today. I thank it for carrying out that important work. We, in the Parliament, owe it to the commission to act on its findings. We wish it well in presenting its findings to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights next month.
I brought forward this debate to highlight the report’s findings and to ask the Scottish Government to respond to it and say whether it will use human rights-based budgeting to protect all our human rights, including the human rights of people in the Highlands and Islands, in the future.
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