Hansard

When eventually I finish work tonight, after we have concluded a short meeting on the Holyrood project at perhaps 7 o'clock or 8 o'clock, I shall drive home to the Highlands—a journey of 198 miles—and I shall be tired. One knows that that comes with the job. John Farquhar Munro and I make those journeys—we grin and bear it and we get there.

This morning, I spoke to an ambulanceman from Wick, who told me a story. Last Monday he worked from 8 am until 8 pm—a 12-hour shift—in Caithness. He went home at 8 o'clock, but at a quarter past 10 that night he was called out to do a return trip of about 200 miles—about the same as my driving home from here—to take a patient to Raigmore hospital in Inverness. He got back home at 5 am and was exhausted.

The intention behind my motion, which colleagues are being kind enough to debate today, is self-evident, but to flesh it out somewhat, let me quote from the 29 December 2002 edition of that august journal, the John O'Groat Journal. The headline reads "Ambulance crews: ‘Enough is enough'". It was a big story in Caithness. A gentleman by the name of Mr William McLeod, an ambulance technician who is based at Wick, is quoted frequently in the article. I will quote several pieces of his contribution. Mr McLeod said:

"Most of the crew members have revealed that they occasionally lose concentration, mostly when returning to Wick from Inverness after a call-out. Some have also developed a worrying habit of driving through villages and not realising that they have done so—a common symptom of tiredness and fatigue."

We have all done that—although I hope only once or twice in our lives—and we know how exceedingly dangerous that is. If someone's eyes start to close they might have a terrible accident.

Despite the fact that the Scottish Ambulance Service was given some £22 million by the Scottish Executive, that money was not used to make the partial out-of-hours coverage at the Wick ambulance depot a 24-hour service. That is the point of the debate and that is what I seek to probe the minister on. I would like to know whether the Executive can put pressure on the Scottish Ambulance Service to consider that possibility.

Of course the service costs money—there are currently 14 staff at Wick, working two shifts, and to put the station on 24-hour coverage would involve more staff and more costs. I lodged a question on the matter for the Minister for Health and Community Care at the end of last year. Speaking on the subject in the John O'Groat Journal, he said:

"The Scottish Executive has provided the Scottish Ambulance Service with an allocation of £108.783 million for 2002/03, an increase of 7.4% on last year.

This allocation supports the service's priorities of investment which include improving its operations room functions"

and so on. He also pointed out that the ambulance stations in Fraserburgh, Dunoon and Stranraer have been put on 24-hour coverage. I imagine that the Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care will come back with something similar this evening.

The population of Caithness is quite sizeable by Highland standards—a good number of people live in Wick and Thurso. The ambulance station in Dingwall, the county town of Ross and Cromarty, which is very close to Inverness, is on 24-hour coverage, and the mileage that ambulances have to cover to run people to Raigmore hospital is not great. Despite that, the station in Wick is not covered 24 hours a day. That is despite the fact that the distance from Wick to the main hospital in Inverness—Raigmore hospital, which covers virtually all the Highlands—is much greater. Therefore, because of the greater distance between Wick and Raigmore as compared with that between Dingwall and Raigmore, the community of Caithness is disadvantaged.

The Wick ambulancemen are suffering from sleep deprivation. They are endangering their lives and those of patients, and the 87p per hour rate for out-of-hours cover beyond their shift seems to me to be derisory. I do not know how people can have normal quality social life when they have to work under such conditions. The Wick station should go on to 24-hour coverage. That will, I admit, require more staff and mean more costs, but the Scottish Ambulance Service should address the situation.

Mr William McLeod says that in the past 25 years—ever since he joined the service—he has pushed for that change but has got nowhere. That is what has prompted the staff of Wick ambulance service to adopt such a high profile. Mr McLeod says:

"I have been working 25 years with the Scottish Ambulance Service. When I started the job we were told that the service and the unions were looking for elimination of stand-by but 25 years on we are still at the same spot."

Ambulance crews say, "Enough is enough."

I conclude with the following thoughts. Health care is for all, regardless of where in Scotland people live. Road safety is for all, regardless of where people live. For a community to be disadvantaged simply because it is far from Inverness—Wick, rather than Dingwall—is fundamentally unjust. I know that the minister and her colleagues in the Executive do their best to invest real funds—there has been a 7.4 per cent increase—in the Scottish Ambulance Service. However, on this issue it is the old story to which I have referred before. Despite the good intentions of ministers and the Executive, sometimes we do not see delivery at the other end of the delivery mechanism.

I thank colleagues for listening to me on this serious issue. I seem always to be fighting on health fronts in the far north; if not on Thurso accident and emergency services, Wick maternity services or GPs in Helmsdale, I am doing so on behalf of Wick ambulance service. I am grateful for the opportunity to share my problem with members and I look forward to hearing the other speeches; I am sure that members will have similar tales to tell from their parts of the country. I look forward to the minister's response and hope that she can be as helpful as possible.