Meeting of the Parliament 19 November 2025
I think that it is very disappointing. I will listen closely to the speeches from SNP members when we hear them. However, I note that we have members’ business debates to try to get cross-party support. We do not always agree with every word in a motion, but I have supported SNP motions in order to allow a subject to be debated. I am grateful that Finlay Carson was able to get support in order to have this important topic debated in the chamber, but I think that, when people look around and see the vast number of empty seats in the middle and on the other side of the chamber, they will wonder why those MSPs are not here to raise constituency concerns about healthcare issues.
In my final minute, I will relay the details of a case that I have already articulated to the cabinet secretary—I have provided him with further information. The case highlights what we are facing in Moray. A father and husband had a heart attack on Saturday 1 November. He stayed in the accident and emergency department at Dr Gray’s hospital, where he was based for four days, in completely inappropriate conditions. He was transferred to Aberdeen Royal infirmary on Thursday 6 November. He was told that he needed an angiogram, but the Scottish Government has told NHS Grampian that it will not pay for angiograms to be performed at the weekend. I want to know why, in one of the biggest health boards in Scotland, we are not performing that important procedure at the weekend. He had to wait until the following Monday—he got his angiogram and was released on Tuesday 11 November, well over a week later. Why was that treatment and vital test delayed, and why was he then forced to find his own way home from Aberdeen to Moray?
The family has put forward a very sensible solution: that we have a shuttle bus between the ARI and Dr Gray’s, or back to Moray, so that people can use that type of facility to get to and from those two medical centres, rather than having to rely on the good will of friends and family. I think that it would make a real difference if the minister could take forward that solution.