Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Thursday, March 7, 2013

Official Report 814KB pdf

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Point of Order

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. During yesterday’s debate on national health service waiting times, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing suggested that I was misleading the Parliament by highlighting that health boards will now be measured against a target to discharge 95 per cent of accident and emergency unit attendees, rather than 98 per cent, within four hours. It was even suggested by the cabinet secretary—

And your point of order is?

The cabinet secretary even suggested to Murdo Fraser that he did not understand the difference between a standard and a target.

The national standard for A and E waiting—

Can we get to a point of order, Mr Hume?

I am coming to that. I have three minutes to do that, Presiding Officer—

No, you do not. I judge whether there is a point of order and then I judge whether you get three minutes. Will you come to your point of order?

Thank you, Presiding Officer.

Scotland’s Information Services Division says:

“The national standard for A&E waiting times states that at least 98% of new and unplanned return attendances at an A&E Service should be seen and then admitted, transferred or discharged within 4 hours.”

NHS boards are measured against—

Mr Hume, what is your point of order?

Presiding Officer, do you agree that it was in fact the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing who misled not only the Parliament but the people of Scotland? Do you agree that he should come to the Parliament and explain himself?

I thank the member for the advance notice of his point of order. As I have said previously, I am not responsible for the content of any member’s speech.

I remind all members to be careful about making allegations that other members have misled the Parliament. These are serious issues and I expect the members involved to look very carefully at the Official Report. If they have inadvertently misled Parliament, I expect them to make that known to the member concerned and to the Parliament. However, as I said at the outset, I am not responsible for any member’s speech.