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Plenary, 12 Dec 2007

12 Dec 2007 · S3 · Plenary

Item of business

Health Strategy

Sturgeon, Nicola SNP Glasgow Govan Watch on SPTV

I thank Mary Scanlon for her questions and for asking them positively. I accept that all members will want more time to read the action plan—on recent evidence, some members certainly need more time to read it.

I meant to say something in response to Margaret Curran's questions, which I am happy to say now. I would be more than happy to have a debate on the action plan, because it sets out a positive vision for the future of health and health care in Scotland.

Mary Scanlon is right to point to our proposal to devise a charter of mutual rights, but I am not sure that she is right to draw an analogy with the Tories' patients charter. I will say what the difference is. I think that the Tories introduced a patients charter at the same time as they were cutting health service funding and eroding the principles on which our health service is based. The charter of mutual rights is meant to enhance and build on those values. It will be set against the Government's on-going commitment to proper funding of the health service and ensuring that health service funds are properly targeted.

Mary Scanlon is also right to point out the importance of the proposals that I announced on community pharmacies and lead maternity care professionals and on the range of measures to tackle hospital infections. I think that she asked about the evidence base for MRSA screening. I point her in the direction of the NHS QIS report on that. I am sure that she will find that report interesting.

Mary Scanlon also raised a range of issues relating to drugs and alcohol, as she has consistently done, and she is right to point to the need for a strong evidence base in that respect. Indeed, there was a substantive discussion about that at a Health and Sport Committee meeting that John Swinney, Kenny MacAskill and I attended a couple of weeks ago. We are committed to ensuring that we grow the evidence base on what works and what does not work. However, I am sure that she agrees that there is already a strong evidence base in respect of brief interventions to tackle alcohol misuse that suggests that such interventions work. That is why we have put so much emphasis on them in the action plan.

We will publish our action plan to tackle obesity next year. We must ensure consistency. It is important that attention is paid to SIGN guidelines on obesity and on other matters. We need consistent weight management strategies throughout Scotland, and our action plan intends to deliver them.

I appreciate the concern about mental health services. There are few more important aspects of the Government's health strategy than mental health services. I do not want to be confrontational towards Mary Scanlon; I simply want to be factual when I say that no mental health funding has been abolished. It is important, and it is in the interests of service users throughout Scotland, not to perpetuate the myth that mental health funding has been abolished. Funding has been rolled into the local government funding, and the NHS and local government will be jointly accountable for delivering quality mental health services in the future.

Finally, I point Mary Scanlon and other members towards the health improvement, efficiency, access and treatment—HEAT—targets at the back of "Better Health, Better Care". Out of 30 HEAT targets that cover the whole range of issues that we are discussing, we have, for the first time, four specific HEAT targets that relate to improving mental health services. We will ensure that NHS boards and, through joint working, local government are held to account by using those targets. That is, of course, an extremely important matter.

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Plenary, 12 Dec 2007

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