Chamber
Plenary, 29 May 2003
29 May 2003 · S2 · Plenary
Item of business
Scottish Executive's Programme
Thank you for allowing me to speak in today's debate. I will confine myself to health, which will not come as a surprise.
Although I welcome much that the First Minister said about improving the NHS, I am concerned that he does not understand the problems that beset Glasgow and, in particular, Stobhill—the hospital that I defended at the election. Between 2001 and 2005, Greater Glasgow NHS Board plans to have reduced the number of acute beds by 11 per cent, despite a year-on-year increase in acute admissions such that patients languish on trolleys awaiting admission to wards for three to four hours—and even eight hours or more—after their arrival at hospital. I am aware of one case in which it took 14 hours for a patient finally to be admitted. That is no way to treat people in the 21st century.
The First Minister said that he wished
"to build a Scotland … whose institutions are open and accountable and reflect the people's priorities".—[Official Report, 28 May 2003; c 81.]
I am one of 129 MSPs; the Scottish Executive may ignore me, but the priorities of the thousands of people who voted for me should not be ignored. It is disgraceful that people have to lie around on trolleys. Believe it or not, more trolleys were ordered, but patients need more beds. General practitioners also need more beds so that they can fulfil their obligations to patients. I urge the Scottish Executive to set up a national bed inquiry, as happened in England when Frank Dobson was Secretary of State for Health. The result of the bed inquiry was Alan Milburn's U-turn and decision to stop the closure of smaller hospitals, which are closer and therefore more accessible to patients in their communities.
I draw the Executive's attention to the document entitled "Keeping the NHS Local—A New Direction of Travel", in which Alan Milburn realises that, in respect of hospitals, big is not always beautiful, but small is. Kidderminster provides a good example of services returning to a downgraded district hospital because the plan to send everything to Worcester did not work.
Given that there is no slack in our system and that people currently lie on trolleys bumper to bumper, I ask the Scottish Executive to halt any further loss of beds in Glasgow and to halt the demolition of six wards at Stobhill that is planned to take place before November this year. That project should be cancelled immediately, until we know how many beds we need. Waiting times will not improve if we do not have the right number of beds. Common sense and concern for the well-being of patients who suffer the indignity and discomfort of lying on trolleys in corridors and accident and emergency units dictate that we should build more in-patient wards and provide more beds at Stobhill instead of demolishing wards. Patients deserve proper beds now—they cannot and should not have to wait for a much-needed independent Scottish national bed inquiry, important though that is.
The Stobhill campaign has tried to highlight the disastrous effect of what the loss of Stobhill's general hospital status in favour of a stand-alone ambulatory care and diagnostic unit—a large out-patient department without in-patient beds—will mean to the community that it serves. Although the intention is to perform day surgery at Stobhill, it is not intended that any back-up services will be provided on site. That is extremely risky.
The work that Stobhill hospital does will be split between Glasgow royal infirmary and Gartnavel hospital. That means that—to mention only two departments—1,000 cardiac or coronary care patients per year will be added to the 50,000 or 60,000 casualties per year who must be dealt with at other hospitals. In addition, people from a large part of my constituency will have to travel through the Clyde tunnel to the accident and emergency unit at the southern general hospital because there will be only two A and E units in Glasgow—one north-east, and the other south-west, of the Clyde. Given the traffic congestion that exists today, lives will be put at risk, if not lost.
I hope that the Executive's proposed NHS reform bill will, as has been stated, provide a new structure for public involvement, ensuring that local health services match the needs of individuals and of communities. That is a commendable goal and I urge the Executive, in order to achieve it, to listen to what the electorate said on 1 May. It is sad that I had to become an MSP to be heard in Parliament, but I hope that the Executive is listening because patients need action now.
Although I welcome much that the First Minister said about improving the NHS, I am concerned that he does not understand the problems that beset Glasgow and, in particular, Stobhill—the hospital that I defended at the election. Between 2001 and 2005, Greater Glasgow NHS Board plans to have reduced the number of acute beds by 11 per cent, despite a year-on-year increase in acute admissions such that patients languish on trolleys awaiting admission to wards for three to four hours—and even eight hours or more—after their arrival at hospital. I am aware of one case in which it took 14 hours for a patient finally to be admitted. That is no way to treat people in the 21st century.
The First Minister said that he wished
"to build a Scotland … whose institutions are open and accountable and reflect the people's priorities".—[Official Report, 28 May 2003; c 81.]
I am one of 129 MSPs; the Scottish Executive may ignore me, but the priorities of the thousands of people who voted for me should not be ignored. It is disgraceful that people have to lie around on trolleys. Believe it or not, more trolleys were ordered, but patients need more beds. General practitioners also need more beds so that they can fulfil their obligations to patients. I urge the Scottish Executive to set up a national bed inquiry, as happened in England when Frank Dobson was Secretary of State for Health. The result of the bed inquiry was Alan Milburn's U-turn and decision to stop the closure of smaller hospitals, which are closer and therefore more accessible to patients in their communities.
I draw the Executive's attention to the document entitled "Keeping the NHS Local—A New Direction of Travel", in which Alan Milburn realises that, in respect of hospitals, big is not always beautiful, but small is. Kidderminster provides a good example of services returning to a downgraded district hospital because the plan to send everything to Worcester did not work.
Given that there is no slack in our system and that people currently lie on trolleys bumper to bumper, I ask the Scottish Executive to halt any further loss of beds in Glasgow and to halt the demolition of six wards at Stobhill that is planned to take place before November this year. That project should be cancelled immediately, until we know how many beds we need. Waiting times will not improve if we do not have the right number of beds. Common sense and concern for the well-being of patients who suffer the indignity and discomfort of lying on trolleys in corridors and accident and emergency units dictate that we should build more in-patient wards and provide more beds at Stobhill instead of demolishing wards. Patients deserve proper beds now—they cannot and should not have to wait for a much-needed independent Scottish national bed inquiry, important though that is.
The Stobhill campaign has tried to highlight the disastrous effect of what the loss of Stobhill's general hospital status in favour of a stand-alone ambulatory care and diagnostic unit—a large out-patient department without in-patient beds—will mean to the community that it serves. Although the intention is to perform day surgery at Stobhill, it is not intended that any back-up services will be provided on site. That is extremely risky.
The work that Stobhill hospital does will be split between Glasgow royal infirmary and Gartnavel hospital. That means that—to mention only two departments—1,000 cardiac or coronary care patients per year will be added to the 50,000 or 60,000 casualties per year who must be dealt with at other hospitals. In addition, people from a large part of my constituency will have to travel through the Clyde tunnel to the accident and emergency unit at the southern general hospital because there will be only two A and E units in Glasgow—one north-east, and the other south-west, of the Clyde. Given the traffic congestion that exists today, lives will be put at risk, if not lost.
I hope that the Executive's proposed NHS reform bill will, as has been stated, provide a new structure for public involvement, ensuring that local health services match the needs of individuals and of communities. That is a commendable goal and I urge the Executive, in order to achieve it, to listen to what the electorate said on 1 May. It is sad that I had to become an MSP to be heard in Parliament, but I hope that the Executive is listening because patients need action now.
In the same item of business
The Presiding Officer (Mr George Reid):
NPA
The first item of business this morning is a debate on the First Minister's statement on the Scottish Executive's programme.
The Deputy First Minister and Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning (Mr Jim Wallace):
LD
The annual commemoration service at the national war memorial takes place this morning and I preface my remarks by saying that, although I will stay as long ...
Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP):
SNP
I have listened with great care to what the Deputy First Minister has said about the economy and I am sure that he knows that the Scottish National Party als...
Mr Wallace:
LD
Given our exposure to a number of global conditions over which we have no more control than Mr Swinney would have in an independent Scotland, I think that se...
Mr Swinney:
SNP
Will the minister give way?
Mr Wallace:
LD
I have already allowed Mr Swinney to intervene.We recognise that we will achieve improvement in our growth rates in the medium and long term only by putting ...
Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con):
Con
Will the Deputy First Minister judge his success in his job by whether he has improved on the figures that he quotes from The Scotsman or whether he has mere...
Mr Wallace:
LD
Many economies across the world have been in recession recently. Everyone in the chamber wants the Scottish economy to grow, but I believe that that will be ...
Mr Swinney:
SNP
Our growth has been low for 40 years.
Mr Wallace:
LD
I will give way to Mr Swinney.
Mr Swinney:
SNP
I am grateful to Mr Wallace for giving way, as that saves me from shouting from the sidelines. For 40 years, Scotland has had a low trend rate of economic gr...
Mr Wallace:
LD
I note that Mr Swinney sees his place as being on the sidelines, but I will not comment further on that.The point that I was making is that we want Scottish ...
Bruce Crawford (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP):
SNP
Will the Deputy First Minister give way?
Mr Wallace:
LD
I have given way quite a lot already.We have already seen some 130 new jobs at the Vestas-Celtic Wind Technology Ltd plant at Campbeltown and plans for the d...
Bruce Crawford:
SNP
I am grateful to the Deputy First Minister for telling us about the Executive's green credentials, which I welcome. The Liberal Democrat manifesto for the 20...
Mr Wallace:
LD
Mr Crawford tries to distort words to make a point that does not exist. The words are the very ones that Ross Finnie used in our response to the consultation...
Tommy Sheridan (Glasgow) (SSP):
SSP
The criminal justice approach to drug abuse has failed miserably, so will the Executive give a commitment to take more money from that budget and spend it on...
Mr Wallace:
LD
The choice is not an either/or one. We are investing in rehabilitation and in bodies such as the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency. However, through using the...
Roseanna Cunningham (Perth) (SNP):
SNP
John Swinney has already promised the coalition partners a fair wind to pursue their agenda. The Scottish National Party intends to be positive and construct...
Phil Gallie:
Con
Twice in two days, Roseanna Cunningham has made a point about the possible difficulties that will come up with the European constitution. Does that suggest t...
Roseanna Cunningham:
SNP
We have been making those points all along, particularly for the past six to 12 months on the fishing industry. We have always said that there are matters ab...
The Minister for Finance and Public Services (Mr Andy Kerr):
Lab
Does the member agree with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which says that, at some point in the past two years, 60 per cent of w...
Roseanna Cunningham:
SNP
That statement would have been much more impressive if we had not had four years—and now we are to have another four years—of this Administration promising u...
Mr Kenneth Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab):
Lab
Ms Cunningham started her speech positively by saying that she would pay tribute to the positive aspects of the Labour-Liberal Democrat agreement. I have put...
Roseanna Cunningham:
SNP
Perhaps the member should have waited until the end of my speech before he made his comments.The SNP's 1999 manifesto contained several ideas on justice that...
David McLetchie (Edinburgh Pentlands) (Con):
Con
The last thing most people in Scotland expected to hear in the wake of 1 May was, "Carry on as before," or, "Let's have more of the same." Any objective anal...
Iain Smith (North East Fife) (LD):
LD
The one thing that the Conservatives did not tell us during the election was exactly what they would do about the Holyrood project. They talked about the was...
David McLetchie:
Con
We proposed a programme to reduce the cost by more than £100 million a year.
Members:
What about the building?
David McLetchie:
Con
We would never have built it in the first place and thrown away the hundreds of millions of pounds that the Executive has poured down the drain in the past f...