Chamber and committees

Good morning, cabinet secretary and panel. What consideration is being given to reviewing urgent care and accident and emergency provision in remote and rural areas?

Hello, Mr Dunne. There is strong support for the restrictions around packaging, especially given the alarming figure that around a quarter of 15-year-olds in Scotland are using vaping products. Therefore, will the vaping industry work with the Governments across the UK to ensure that changes in standardised packaging are adhered to?

Sometimes—well, often—incidents pressure test a system. We have heard about the tragic situation in Portree.

Last week, in my area, a little girl called Ivy Mae Ross tragically died; I know that the thoughts of all of us are with her family. That incident highlighted an issue, in that a specialist operations terror attack unit had to be deployed because ambulances were not available to attend the scene. That was not just a single situation—it has been going on for months. At that time, many ambulances were stacked outside the hospital. On that occasion, there was no negative impact directly from that, but it set alarm bells ringing. Given the unrelenting pressures on the Scottish Ambulance Service in my NHS Grampian area, in particular—although those pressures are not unique to Scotland—will you, as cabinet secretary, review contingency planning for serious incidents such as the ones that I mentioned?

To follow up on that, it is—as you recognise—a huge issue that there are failings in the system and that some hospitals are better than others. However, stacking—for example in the north-east, where half an ambulance fleet is stacked outside the hospital—puts pressure on the system, so it is clear that there is a failing in the wider system. Will you be tackling that as a matter of urgency?

Would you be willing to meet me and my co-convener, Pauline McNeill, to talk about the issue that I raised? One mother has had to crowdfund to treat her child’s epilepsy. I think that she pays about £2,000 a month because the treatment is available only on private prescription. We have been going round in circles, so would you be willing to meet to have a discussion to see whether we can chart a way through?

The report on the infected blood scandal has vindicated campaigners, but its findings are devastating for those who are caught up in it. The psychological impact of all that is earth shattering. Today’s statement mentions that the Scottish Government is working with charities that represent the infected and affected. Will psychological support be made available in Scotland as part of the process?

I, too, thank Marie McNair for securing the parliamentary time to mark national epilepsy week. Having experienced a grand mal seizure myself, I want to make a brief contribution, because it is so important to increase people’s understanding of this neurological condition and its impact on everyday life. I commend Dr Alasdair Allan for also sharing his story with us.

Having somewhere to share stories and experiences can be transformative for people who are living with epilepsy, and for their carers. I pay tribute to support groups such as Quarriers epilepsy community outreach, which has groups in Inverurie and Banff in my region, and a parents support group in Stonehaven.

After experiencing my seizure, it felt as though the whole world had fallen apart. I was told by my consultant that I might never work again. I could not drive or get to work, I could not go swimming and I could not ride my bike, which I did often. At that time, I also had to think very carefully, as I wanted to have children.

It felt as though I had lost complete control of my life and the freedom to live it in the way that I wanted to. I felt panic and fear as doctors worked to unravel the cause of what can be a complex condition. Fortunately, I was able to work—I was the head of a human resources department—but I know that not everybody in employment is as lucky as I am. I was grateful to my employers at the time for their support in helping me to get to and from work.

Last year, as we have heard, Epilepsy Scotland published “Epilepsy on the Mind”, a report on the impacts of epilepsy on mental health, which found that one in three people with epilepsy said that they have depression, half said that they have anxiety and one in four said that they have both. Those are sobering findings, and they reinforce why we must encourage conversations, like this one, about epilepsy. I was pleased to support Epilepsy Scotland’s call during mental health awareness week for health boards across Scotland to implement mental health screening in epilepsy clinics. That is very important.

Another finding in Epilepsy Scotland’s report that struck me was that 48 per cent of those who were surveyed were not in paid employment. Looking back at my experience, it was so devastating that I could have stopped work, but I was given support that really helped me to understand what the condition was, and I had very supportive employers—as I said, I am grateful for that.

More than 60 per cent of respondents to the survey thought that epilepsy had affected their employment prospects. That is true; among disabled people across the UK, people with epilepsy have one of the lowest rates of employment. When I saw that figure, I found it alarming, and it is one of the reasons why I felt that I had to speak in the debate. I share Epilepsy Action’s ambitions for more support to help people with epilepsy to find and stay in work. As a society, we must do better in that regard.

I have one final reflection. As co-convener of the CPG on medicinal cannabis, I have heard some really difficult stories of parents desperately trying to secure medicinal cannabis oil to ease the symptoms of their children with epilepsy. We seem to be going round and round in circles on that issue, and we need to find an answer to it. The UK Government has rescheduled certain cannabis-based products for medicinal use. More than five years on from that change, we need to address the barriers to prescribing those products.

The reality is that rural and remote communities are being hit especially hard by the crisis in primary care, and the cabinet secretary cannot pass the buck. In the north of Scotland, Burghead and Hopeman surgeries in Moray have closed. Others—such as Braemar and Oldmeldrum surgeries—have handed back their contracts. Scotland has lost around 100 GP practices in the past 10 years. That is a crisis presided over by the central belt SNP Government. Can the cabinet secretary tell GPs and patients today whether he is committed to keeping GP surgeries open and ensuring that care is kept as close to home as possible, because we cannot afford to lose any more GP surgeries?

We have massive cuts to health board budgets, reduced funding for primary care, rising overheads and on-going recruitment and retention issues. GP surgeries are desperate for support to make them sustainable. It beggars belief that the Scottish National Party Government would press pause on the scheme. That is a hammer blow to GPs when primary care is in crisis. Clinicians have told me that patients will come to harm because of the SNP Government’s spending decisions. Does the cabinet secretary accept that? Will he restart the loan scheme process immediately?

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recent British Medical Association Scotland survey, which found that 30 GP practices consider their position to be “precarious” following the pausing of the GP sustainability loan scheme. (S6T-01985)