Chamber and committees

I, too, thank Liz Smith for securing the time for this evening’s debate.

Earlier this year, I was involved in the fight to save Bucksburn swimming pool after Sport Aberdeen’s devastating decision to close it. That decision, which was a result of funding cuts by Aberdeen City Council, was taken without consultation and without equality impact assessments. At the time, Bucksburn was the only swimming pool in the city with a shallow-stair entry for people with disabilities. Only now, months after the axe came down, are we likely to see a full formal consultation on the closure, because of legal challenges prepared by the Govan Law Centre and the Grampian Community Law Centre. The surrounding community rallied around that beloved facility, and I pay tribute to those involved in the campaign to save the pool, such as Kirsty Fraser and Genevieve Wheeler-Melvin, and their incredible efforts to keep the pool open, as well as to Dr Mark Brown, president of Bucksburn Amateur Swimming Club.

Too many people in decision-making positions forget or are oblivious to the benefits of public swimming pools. The reality is that councils look at facilities such as Bucksburn through the lens of balance sheets and financial liabilities. However, a mental health nurse I met at a save Bucksburn swimming pool demo told me that she swears by swimming as a help to her patients; another woman told me that she has a rare kidney disease and that the water makes swimming a weight-bearing exercise for her; and there was a man with two replacement knees who found walking difficult and therefore needed the pool to exercise and build up his strength. The pool also provided the opportunity for children to learn essential life skills to keep them safe in water. Indeed, hundreds of children were learning to swim at Bucksburn pool before it closed.

There is also a wider story to tell about the state and provision of council-funded leisure facilities elsewhere in my region—and I would note that no Labour or Scottish National Party members from the region are here this evening. In Dundee, a storied saga of ineptitude and dither has led to the city’s flagship Olympia swimming pool closing for two years, only nine years after opening. Meanwhile, Dundee City Council is spending more than £100 million replacing two schools—Braeview academy and Craigie high school—that have swimming pool facilities, but there are no plans for a swimming pool at the new East End community campus.

In March 2023, the UK Government announced a £63 million fund for struggling swimming pools. The Scottish Government received Barnett consequentials as a result of that, yet we are still in the dark about how that money has been allocated. I hope that Maggie Chapman, who has spoken so passionately about Bucksburn swimming pool, can influence her SNP colleagues to spend the money that they have received from the UK Government to save it.

The social, emotional and health-related value of our swimming pools cannot be ignored, and I urge the Scottish Government to step up to save them.

I have three questions, the first of which is for Pamela Milliken. Aberdeenshire health and social care partnership covers remote and rural areas where the future of primary care is in jeopardy. Indeed, as we know, Braemar has faced such huge difficulties in recruiting a GP that, in December, the practice will have to hand back its contract and move to a 2C arrangement. There are already six general practices under such an arrangement in your area and Braemar will make it seven. Given that increase from six to seven, do you expect the number to increase again in the coming year?

So it is an increase from five to six, then.

Sorry, but my question is whether that number will increase.

That sounded like a politician’s way of saying that it will not reopen. Thank you.

My next question is probably best put to Mr Burns, too. How confident are you, going into the winter, that staffing levels are right? Where on the scale from nought for not confident at all to 10 for extremely confident would you put your confidence levels?

It would be great if you could do that. Thank you.

I have a brief practical question. You talked about a programme to hire 50 GPs. I am thinking particularly about the issues that are faced by rural general practices. We know about the example of Braemar, where the practice is trying to find a GP and it is looking globally. The staff are having to do all the recruitment work themselves, including organising visas. Is there a Scottish Government programme that could help them, or could the health and social care partnership do that for them?

My third question is for any member of the panel. It is clear that the incentives to attract GPs to rural and remote areas are not enough to fill GP vacancies. What assessment has the Scottish Government made of the financial incentives that are available, the difficulties for GP recruits in accessing housing, and projects such as “Rediscover the joy of general practice”, in contributing to the sustainability of primary care in remote and rural settings?

Okay, thank you. My third question is a final one for Pamela Milliken. The Insch war memorial hospital’s minor injury unit—minor injury units are very important, as we know—and in-patient ward closed in 2020 to allow nurses to be redeployed to other healthcare settings, and the hospital never reopened, despite the former First Minister committing to renewing or upgrading that community facility more than two years ago. What are the obstacles to reopening that facility? What is the timeframe for delivering on that commitment?