Hansard

I welcome the cabinet secretary and her ministers to their new roles.

I begin by recognising the extraordinary dedication of our health and social care workers across Scotland. Every day, doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, porters, cleaners, administrators, care workers and countless others provide care, compassion and expertise in extraordinarily challenging circumstances. They deserve our thanks, but they also deserve honesty. If we are serious about investing in, protecting and renewing our NHS, we must recognise the fundamental truth that the challenges that our hospitals face cannot be solved within hospital walls alone.

The Scottish Greens have long argued that health is not simply about what happens when someone reaches an A and E department, joins a waiting list or goes to their GP. Health is shaped by whether someone can afford to heat their home, whether they have secure housing, whether they can access nutritious food, whether they are supported in their communities and whether they can get help before a crisis develops.

That is why our amendment highlights the need to reduce health inequalities and tackle poverty alongside reforming health services. We must also focus on prevention, community services and reducing those health inequalities, not simply managing illness after it has taken hold.

Too often, the people who rely most heavily on NHS services are those who have been failed elsewhere. We see the consequences of poverty in our hospitals, those of poor housing in our GP surgeries and those of precarious work in our mental health services. If we ignore those realities, we will never relieve the pressure on our NHS workforce.

That is particularly true in the north-east. Constituents across the region that I am privileged to represent continue to experience challenges in accessing healthcare, while NHS Grampian and NHS Tayside face significant workforce pressures, recruitment difficulties and growing demand. Rurality, ageing populations and the challenges of retaining staff in key specialties all place additional strain on services. The staff working in those board areas have continued to deliver under immense pressure, but they cannot be expected to carry ever-increasing burdens without the support, investment and long-term planning that they need.

That brings me to workforce planning. For years, professional bodies, trade unions and staff have warned that Scotland lacks the long-term workforce planning that is needed to meet rising demand. We need a sustainable workforce strategy that supports staff today while building the workforce that we will need tomorrow. That means investing in education, training and career development and creating more routes into health and care professions, including high-quality apprenticeships. The Royal College of Occupational Therapists has highlighted the importance of those things in building a sustainable workforce and addressing future staffing needs. However, workforce planning is not simply about numbers; it is also about valuing people.

The Royal College of Nursing has highlighted the continued pressures that nursing staff face with many reporting exhaustion, unsafe staffing levels and care being compromised because demand exceeds capacity. The British Medical Association has similarly raised concerns about doctors’ wellbeing, burnout and the need for workplace cultures that support staff rather than pushing them beyond breaking point.

I acknowledge the work that was done earlier this year to avert industrial action by doctors and to engage constructively with staff representatives. Meaningful dialogue, fair pay and staff wellbeing matter, and creating workplaces where concerns can be raised openly and safely matters, too. A sustainable NHS depends on valuing every part of its workforce.

Too often, discussions about NHS leadership focus solely on a narrow group of professions, despite the enormous contribution that is made by allied health professionals. Physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, radiographers, podiatrists and many others play a vital role in helping people to recover and to maintain independence, and in enabling them to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.

The Allied Health Professions Federation Scotland has rightly called for genuine representation of allied health professionals at every level of leadership and decision making, alongside creating parity of esteem with nursing leadership. If we want services to be designed around prevention, rehabilitation and person-centred care, the voices of those allied health professionals must be present wherever decisions are made.

Perhaps nowhere is the connection between workforce pressures and patient outcomes clearer than in social care. For too long, social care has been treated as the neglected partner of the NHS, yet delayed discharge, pressure on hospitals and growing waiting lists are all connected to a care system that is underfunded and undervalued. Care work is skilled work, and it is essential work. It enables people to live independently, with dignity and choice. It supports families and prevents avoidable hospital admissions, and it helps to ensure that people can leave hospital safely when they are ready to do so.

That is why our amendment calls for social care workers to be paid at least £15 an hour. For the Scottish Greens, good care and fair work go hand in hand. We cannot build a resilient care system on low pay, insecure contracts and workforce shortages. If we truly value care, we must value the people who provide it.

The NHS remains one of Scotland’s greatest collective achievements, and protecting it means more than funding hospitals. It means investing in prevention, tackling poverty, reducing inequality, supporting staff wellbeing, strengthening social care, creating sustainable career pathways and valuing every member of the workforce. If we want a renewed NHS, we must also build a fairer Scotland.

That is the spirit of the Scottish Greens’ amendment, and I urge colleagues to support it.

I move amendment S7M-00228.2, to insert at end:

“; recognises that issues in hospitals cannot be solved without addressing the crisis in social care, reducing health inequalities and tackling poverty; believes that social care workers should be paid at least £15 an hour, and calls on the Scottish Government to address long term workforce planning to support current staff and patients.”

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