Health and Community Care Committee, 22 Mar 2000

Meeting date: Wednesday, March 22, 2000

Official Report 235KB pdf

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Petitions

The next item on the agenda is consideration of petition PE92 from Mr Frank Harvey, which calls for the Scottish Parliament to hold a public inquiry into, first, staffing and waiting times in accident and emergency departments in Scotland and secondly, the number and type of beds available in NHS hospitals in Scotland. As a member of the Public Petitions Committee, I know Mr Harvey very well—I believe that he is currently responsible for 20 per cent of the petitions that have been submitted, so he is keeping all the Parliament's committees very busy.

The Public Petitions Committee's recommendation is that this committee should simply note the petition. Are members agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

The next item on the agenda is consideration of petition PE93, again from Mr Frank Harvey, which concerns the incident at Falkirk royal infirmary involving a patient with body dysmorphic disorder. The Public Petitions Committee recommends that we simply note the petition. Are members agreed?

I am concerned about simply noting this petition. As you said, this particular gentleman has been responsible for 20 per cent of petitions to the Public Petitions Committee. I think that we should find another term that means less than noting.

Your point highlights our difficulties when an individual overindulges the public's ability to access a Parliament that we pride ourselves on being open, accountable and accessible to all.

The same could be said of the amount of questions lodged by some MSPs.

We all agree with that.

The clerk of the Public Petitions Committee has already said to Mr Harvey that it might be more fruitful if he concentrated his efforts on a smaller number of petitions.

I know that we receive petitions from people who go on a bit, but Mr Harvey's ideas are perfectly sensible. Without wanting to make it illegal, I am sure that the committee agrees that healthy limbs should not be removed unnecessarily. I say good luck to Mr Harvey.

The Executive has asked the chief medical officer to write to all the trusts, to find out what their response would be. We might return to the issue at some point in the future, but the Executive is obviously acting as a result of what happened at Falkirk royal infirmary.

That is a good example of a total waste of time.

The more we pursue it, the more it becomes a waste of time.

For the chief medical officer to write to every trust, asking them to set up committees to determine policy, is a waste of time in the system. That is totally wrong.

Let us not waste any more time, and move on.