Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Official Report 774KB pdf

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Time for Reflection

Good afternoon. Our time for reflection leader today is Peter Ross, who is a volunteer with the Dumfries and Galloway third sector forum and the Scottish Parliament community partnerships project, a road to health.

Presiding Officer,

“John Anderson, my jo, John,

When we were first acquent;

Your locks were like the raven,

Your bonny brow was brent;

But now your brow is beld, John,

Your locks are like the snaw;

But blessings on your frosty pow,

John Anderson, my jo.”

That was a quotation from Robert Burns’s poem.

I am a volunteer with the Scottish Parliament community partnerships project called a road to health. Dumfries and Galloway, where the project runs, is a large rural area with a low population. We have one main hospital in Dumfries. It is approximately 70 miles from the next biggest town, Stranraer. We have the highest proportion of older people of any of Scotland’s regions.

The community partnership volunteers have consulted 1,000 people across the region, and our interim evaluation raises concerns. Seventy per cent of people with a hospital appointment got there by car and bus, and 29 per cent of them were stressed by the experience. One hundred and twenty-three people found going out of the house difficult or impossible. Thirty-six per cent reported needing help with shopping, and 29 per cent of those people had to travel more than 5 miles to a shop.

My story is one of apprehension, as I am my wife’s carer. What happens if I or my jo gets ill and has to go into hospital? What happens if—or when—I can no longer drive, due to illness or affordability?

We have collected many stories. These four are picked at random. An ill man going to the hospital in Dumfries is taken via Stranraer, increasing his journey from 60 miles to 180 miles. A visit to the Jubilee hospital in Clydebank by public transport, for some, involves three or four buses and an overnight stay. Partners and carers sometimes cannot accompany the patient. The fourth one is a quote:

“I haven’t been out the house for 7 years.”

I know that this is extremely difficult and that good people are striving to make it all work. There are many policies, strategies and guidelines. You have had difficult debates and I urge you not to shirk from having them and to provide the leadership that is required for us all to find our way through.

I return to the words of Robert Burns:

“John Anderson, my jo, John,

We clamb the hill the gither;

And monie a canty day, John,

We’ve had wi’ ane anither:

Now we maun totter down, John,

But hand in hand we’ll go;

And sleep the gither at the foot,

John Anderson, my jo.”

If you want some more in-depth reading, I recommend the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations’ publication, “A life worth living.”