Meeting of the Parliament 25 March 2026 [Draft]
As a South Scotland MSP, I am no stranger to the harsh realities faced by those accessing services in rural areas. I speak to constituents from across the region, and the issues that we discuss match those found in the Government’s own research, with people mentioning transport, travel costs and access to GPs and other services, along with depopulation and a lack of economic opportunity.
The pressing issues that we are discussing today are unique and diverse and any action taken to address them must be flexible and responsive. It is usually my colleague Rhoda Grant who speaks in rural debates, and I know that she has really appreciated the support from Mairi Gougeon and Jim Fairlie and their work in committee. I pass on the very best wishes of the Labour group.
We all agree that living in a remote or rural community should not limit access to basic and specialist care, nor should it limit opportunities. We know that the housing crisis is acute, that depopulation and demographic change are very real in rural communities and that transport and connectivity issues are raised with every member in the chamber. Access to services can be limited, economic instability often affects rural communities in a heightened way and the cost of living is much greater for those living in them.
As everyone has said, the next Parliament must work together to rebuild trust with rural communities and businesses, and it must redouble efforts to co-design a rural strategy with communities and to put the future of rural and island areas on a more secure footing. The next Government must work with those communities to ensure that legislation is implemented and monitored to enable delivery.
Given that much of my time in my five years in the Parliament has been focused on health, it would be remiss of me not to raise the subject again in the context of rural and remote communities. This parliamentary session ends as it began, with a Government that has really let down the patients and staff in our rural and island health services. Indeed, we have heard repeatedly of a healthcare system that underdelivers and underperforms for our rural communities.
Our universal healthcare system has become a bit of a postcode lottery, with rural health inequalities continuing to be exacerbated by decisions that do not always work for those communities. General practitioners are difficult to get in rural areas; waiting times are increasing; and the level of delayed discharge is high.
Rural areas bear the brunt of the failure to match up services, and distances can make things difficult. In the next parliamentary session, there really needs to be cross-portfolio working, with links made between transport, economy and the cost of living. In my region, there are difficult stories to tell about maternity and alcohol services, but I want to raise in particular the issues of training and support for staff to stay in rural areas, because those are cross-portfolio matters. We must work with trade unions, professional bodies, training providers and NHS boards to get flexible training opportunities, delivery and recruitment in place. One particular area that I have mentioned is apprenticeships, and I hope that we can do more work on that in the next parliamentary session.
I hope that the Parliament can pass on as a legacy the requirement for cross-portfolio working when it comes to rural issues, and I hope that we see that happen in the next session of the Parliament.