Chamber and committees

Yes, indeed. We have the best scientists in this country, at universities and in industry, and it was Government, industry and research that together gave us the opportunity to lead the way in vaccination.

Surplus donations alone will not be enough to allow us to defeat the pandemic. That is why the UK is backing the Oxford-AstraZeneca production model, while providing developing countries with the financial support that they need to obtain vaccines. It is not as simple as giving the intellectual property away to developing countries, as the manufacturing process might not be able to deliver the product in some places. That has been stated by AstraZeneca. However, the commitment to providing the initially developed vaccine at cost in perpetuity for less developed countries is extremely welcome.

Domestic need for the current booster programme will be met through our mRNA vaccines and Oxford-AstraZeneca, meaning that the UK can donate its full Janssen order to developing countries. The UK continues to proactively manage our vaccine supply and does not hold a stockpile of Covid vaccines. All the procured regulated doses are either used rapidly by our domestic programme or are being shared internationally with countries in need.

Let us not ignore the role of other manufacturing arrangements that are being made: Gavi announced at the start of December that it had reached an agreement to access an additional 150 million doses of the mRNA vaccine against Covid-19 manufactured by Moderna, to be made available to COVAX at the lowest global tiered price. That amendment to the existing advance purchase agreement between Gavi and Moderna means that a total of up to 650 million doses of the Moderna vaccine could be available to COVAX participants through 2021 and 2022. Furthermore, as part of an urgent call for manufacturers to prioritise supply to COVAX, Gavi and Moderna have reached an agreement to make 20 million doses available to COVAX. Those doses, which were originally scheduled to be released to COVAX in quarter 1 of 2022, will now be available in this quarter, accelerating the response. We need to be mindful and to acknowledge how those innovative global initiatives between Governments, research and industry are all coming together to tackle the massive challenge ahead of us.

We are not out of this pandemic until we are all out of this pandemic, as Ms Boyack said. We need to help others while ensuring that we contain the virus here. I therefore welcome the UK Government’s commitment and action to send 100 million vaccines to countries in need.

It is imperative that there are enough personnel to run offshore oil and gas facilities. Equally, there must be enough competent personnel in all the safety-critical roles and emergency response teams at those installations. We are still learning about omicron, as we have heard today, and failure to act swiftly could result in the shutdown of offshore installations or onshore terminals, which would result in a security of supply issue for Scotland and the wider UK. Will the First Minister support the oil and gas industry with a more flexible approach and a strategy that can be deployed quickly to focus on the protection of the most vulnerable yet retain personnel on our installations so that can they continue to power the UK?

There is on-going national press coverage of, and significant public interest in, the Edinburgh tram inquiry, and that public interest continues to grow. The £500,000 that was allocated to the inquiry in the Scottish budget last week will bring the total that has been provided by the Scottish Government to over £12.5 million. What was once a beleaguered project is now a much-beleaguered public inquiry. Edinburgh residents deserve answers about what went wrong with the building of the trams. Will the First Minister shed light on why an inquiry that was initiated by her predecessor seven years ago is still on-going, although closing submissions concluded in 2018?

I believe that local health services are a vital part of local communities. The Edington hospital, which opened in 1913, has served the people of North Berwick and East Lothian successfully since then—up until now. Prior to Covid and its closure, the hospital had nine beds and provided medical care for a range of chronic conditions and mobility problems as well as respite and end-of-life care.

On 9 November, I wrote to Maree Todd on the matter. I had raised the closure of the Edington hospital with her at the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, having visited North Berwick to attend the hands around the Edington rally. In my letter, I voiced concerns about fears that the hospital, which provides palliative care to local residents, was going to be shut down for good and asked whether she would contact NHS Lothian and reverse the closure of the in-patient palliative beds at Edington Hospital.

The minister replied that East Lothian health and social care partnership and the integration joint board were agreeing criteria for the safe reopening of Edington hospital and ensuring that staff were engaged and informed and that there was also full engagement and consultation with local communities, community groups, staff and elected members. She also said that the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care would be meeting with the community hospital campaign group soon to discuss its concerns and future plans for the hospital. As my colleague Craig Hoy said, it is vital for the meeting between Humza Yousaf and the community hospital campaign group to take place as soon as possible.

I am sad to say that NHS Lothian’s gold command group met last week to review the decision to temporarily move staff from the Edington to East Lothian community hospital in Haddington, and the decision was taken to keep North Berwick’s Edington hospital closed. Ultimately that decision centres on workforce pressures. There are simply not enough staff. I have been calling for resilient and robust workforce planning—indeed, not just a plan but real action—to address the long-term issues with our workforce. These issues have long pre-dated Covid and, in fact, can be attributed directly to decisions taken by the Scottish National Party Government from as far back as 2007, when Nicola Sturgeon as health secretary cut the number of nurse training places.

As we have heard in the chamber, there is cross-community and cross-party support for the Edington’s rapid reopening. If the Government cared about community hospitals as much as the rest of us, it would have done something about this. There was no consultation—there was nothing. After everything we have faced over the past 18 months, it should be clear that, if we had more services in communities, we could—and should—manage things better. To decide to close a community service now makes no sense, because we need more services in the heart of our communities.

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the role that clinical research has played in leading the country out of the Covid-19 pandemic, how it will support clinical research in the national health service to improve the care and treatment of patients with non-communicable diseases such as heart disease and stroke. (S6O-00524)

Funding for the chief scientist office has not increased since 2011 and, compared with the United Kingdom Government’s funding the National Institute for Health Research, it is less than two thirds of the funding for clinical research that is provided in England per capita. Without funding, Scotland risks losing talented clinical researchers and having reduced access to valuable new treatments. Will the Scottish Government commit to increasing its funding of the chief scientist office to ensure that the national health service in Scotland is not left behind?

That is great—thanks.

Cat Berry, who was one of the witnesses at last week’s meeting, suggested that the timescales for implementation of the specialist baby loss units can and should be shortened. Do you think that that is possible, Ms Todd?

Is the sound better now?

According to information that we have, NHS Lothian has said that the Government needs

“to further invest beyond the recommendations”.

We have heard a lot about the training, staffing and so on. I seek reassurance that there will be the continuous reassessment of the workforce and the investment that are needed. NHS Lothian talks candidly about the

“need to consider an increased staffing complement to ensure that education and training, clinical supervision and support are embedded as part of practice and held in the same parity as direct clinical care.”

That is about making sure that time for self-development and improvement is included in people’s working time.

I think that Mr Stewart is probably best suited to comment on that, but I am not sure.