Meeting of the Parliament 19 November 2025
I, too, thank Finlay Carson for bringing today’s debate to the chamber, and I was pleased to support his motion. As we have heard, people in rural areas face unique challenges in accessing healthcare. I therefore welcome this debate and the opportunity to highlight the day-to-day realities of those who live in my rural South Scotland region.
Issues have been raised with me not only by my constituents who are patients, but by our hard-working NHS staff. Living in a rural community should not limit people’s access to basic healthcare, as Brian Whittle has mentioned, and there should also be ways of managing more specialist care. However, for many constituents and staff, it is frustrating that things do not run smoothly. Many people in those communities feel disconnected from their healthcare, as services seem to move further and further away, and many of my constituents have told me that they feel a sense of doom, because they cannot see any improvement in rural healthcare.
Last year, we debated the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee’s findings on remote and rural healthcare, which revealed profound inequalities in access to services and care. That is a really important issue. The report reinforced what has long been known, which is that those communities experience greater inequalities in accessing healthcare compared with those in our more urban and central areas. That is true across health services—including maternity services, which I will mention only briefly, as Scottish Labour highlighted the issue in the chamber just a few weeks ago.
Mothers in Wigtownshire, in my South Scotland region, do not have a dignified service, and it is important that we address that. I know that there are staffing pressures, but women are travelling 70 miles to receive care. Those mothers, their husbands, their partners, their family members and other campaigners say that they are extremely concerned about the difficulties that might arise during that process.
I also want to mention staff recruitment, retention and training, because it is a real concern that has been raised with me. I have asked the Government a number of times about its plans to expand the apprenticeship-type model for healthcare workers, as recommended by the nursing and midwifery task force, which offers a great opportunity to grow skills in our communities. I have talked to many people about that model, which would allow people in rural areas to train, work in and be committed to their local area, whether they live there because they want to or because they cannot, for whatever reason, move away. I have been talking about the issue for five years now, but it does not feel as if it has edged forward at all. Perhaps the minister could come back to it in her closing remarks.
Lastly, I would like to highlight the workforce problems in South Ayrshire. That region might not be what some would traditionally think of as rural or remote, but people in communities such as Girvan feel that things are just becoming worse and worse. In my discussions with constituents and staff at the local hospital, I hear that it is often difficult to recruit and retain staff. These challenges are real for both patients and staff.
The Government might point to on-going work, but the reality is that communities need action and tangible changes for them and their families. What communities need now is delivery, and that is what we would like to hear more about.
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