Chamber and committees

In previous evidence sessions, some of the Government officials who work with the digital platform stated that there is a disconnect between Scotland and other parts of the UK on the level of investment in people who develop such technology. Do you have plans to upscale that and have more people working behind the scenes to develop the digital platform?

As we have heard, new statistics that were published this week revealed the worst A and E waiting times on record. Almost two in five people were not seen within four hours, and it is shameful that more than 1,000 people spent more than 12 hours in an A and E department. It is tragic but abundantly clear that hundreds more people will die in A and E departments if the SNP Government does not wake up and smell the coffee.

Have the families of those who have died in preventable circumstances been informed of the reason why their loved one has died? What urgent action is the SNP Government taking to eliminate every avoidable death in our NHS?

That is very much the evidence that we heard loud and clear. The nimbleness of the third sector provides such a lifeline to those people.

As the committee took evidence, it became clear that accessing primary care services, community services, third sector services and specialist services involves barriers for individuals who are in dire need of support. What does that mean? It means that, often, support is available only for acute cases and interventions.

The BMA told us that the bar for referral is set high. How can that be right, given that suicide is the leading cause of maternal deaths in the period of six weeks to a year after the end of pregnancy?

I welcome the minister’s pledge that steps are being taken to ensure that the service landscape is more accessible, yet services are limited not just in their accessibility but in their consistency and structure. Alex Cole-Hamilton spoke of the postcode lottery of services that our families face across the country.

Let us please not sit here today and use the pandemic as a justification. Although it may have deepened the crisis, it has also acted as a monumental volcanic fissure, exposing the sheer scale of the problem: the underinvestment, the lack of planning and the lack of focus. Those issues long predated March 2020.

In particular, the report highlights the stresses that are placed on the midwifery profession by years of inadequate workforce planning under the SNP Government, under which workforce planning always appears to take a back seat.

As things stand, there is a current and long-standing shortfall of midwives in Scotland. As Carol Mochan mentioned, this is what a midwife said in response to a recent survey by the Royal College of Midwives:

“I cannot remember the last time we had safe staffing within our unit. On a daily basis, we are struggling to provide a decent standard of care to our women and their families.”

Staff shortages are having an impact not just on recruitment and retention, but on training, including training on perinatal mental health, which is too often failing to take place because of staff shortages.

As I mentioned in my introduction, I welcome the fact that baby loss fell within the scope of the committee’s inquiry. We need to ensure that every health board has specialist baby loss units, which should be sympathetically located. Those units must have a means of entry and exit that is separate from maternity wards, so as not to cause additional stress, and in no circumstance should women have to walk the length of the maternity ward to access support.

I turn to the pandemic. Covid has, without question, placed severe restrictions on pregnant women. Women have been forced to attend scans without support; forced to receive sometimes devastating news; left on their own to come to terms with a loss that is beyond understanding; and left to go through labour with no support. Further, the removal of support groups and postnatal classes has undoubtedly reinforced feelings of isolation and abandonment. Natalie Don shared the very real experiences that she went through during pregnancy, and I congratulate her on her good news.

Given those sobering truths, as we learn to live with Covid, I strongly believe that the SNP Government must undertake an urgent review of perinatal mental health provision during the pandemic. If we are to learn lessons for the future, we can begin only by reflecting on the past. As Craig Hoy highlighted, the Minister for Mental Wellbeing and Social Care said that he was “in listening mode”. Is it not about time that he got into action mode? I would also like, as Emma Harper stated, to see some “accelerated action”, so let us implement the committee’s recommendations in full.

This short inquiry was of great personal significance to me, and it was a pleasure to take part in it. In particular, I am grateful that our inquiry accounted for the impact of baby loss, which is often a taboo subject—one that is not spoken about until it affects us personally, or those who are closest to us. When it happens, it is absolutely devastating, and the world falls apart. I speak for the friends around me who have all experienced that pain.

I thank all the women who took part in the evidence sessions, as well as the fathers; Gillian Martin specifically outlined the plight of one father who had such difficulties in accessing services for his child. The experiences that they shared with us regularly brought us to tears. I felt their pain, frustration, exasperation and sheer sense of loss as they fought to access services for themselves and for their families, partners and wee babies. I was pleased that the minister acknowledged that the inquiry raised awareness—which is much needed—of perinatal mental health.

Scottish Conservative members welcome the committee’s report in full, and we urge the SNP Government to take forward its recommendations in full. The report’s recommendations cross a wide range of themes, including the accessibility of services, mother and baby units, workforce recruitment and retention, birth trauma, baby loss units and inequalities.

In particular, the report paints a deeply worrying picture of Scotland’s perinatal mental health services and their perilous state after 15 years of SNP control.

Yesterday afternoon, the cross-party group on women’s health heard that midwives are leaving the profession in droves. They cannot cope with the stress that is placed on them by workforce pressures. Right across the sector, there are simply not enough of the right skilled staff on duty at any one time. Midwives are underfunded and overworked, and are, quite simply, burnt out.

The statement offers nothing new for them—no additional support and no additional funding. At what point will the health secretary cease his self-congratulatory tone, move out of his echo chamber and bring forward a credible plan to relieve the long-standing pressures on the midwifery profession—pressures that long predate the pandemic?

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is adapting its agriculture policy for crops and livestock due to the war in Ukraine. (S6O-00917)

The war in Ukraine has highlighted the need to support our farmers and growers to deal with crises such as inflationary pressure and the market volatility that they face. Will the cabinet secretary promise that her Government will not approve any more deals to send thousands of sweet potatoes to Russia?

In 2019, the Health and Sport Committee held an inquiry that highlighted a number of barriers relating to health practitioners’ use of—[Inaudible.]—in primary care. Such barriers included a lack of strong evidence on its long-term effectiveness, time constraints, lack of awareness and quality assurance. Has any progress been made in tackling those barriers over the past three years? Perhaps Alison Leitch can start on that.

In 2017, the Scottish Government published a “Making it Easier: A Health Literacy Action Plan for Scotland 2017-2025”. In the five years since, what progress has been made in improving health literacy? What sense do you get that there has been improvement? Do you think that the plan has contributed to progress? I am not sure whether Chris Mackie is able to answer.

It looks like a couple of people—Scott Henderson and Paul Perry, perhaps—might want to respond to my question.