Chamber and committees

The past 18 months have been a time of unprecedented pressure in the NHS, but the problem is historical. In 2018, only 20 per cent of ambulance staff thought that there were enough staff to do their jobs and, even before the pandemic, the number of ambulances that recorded turnaround times of more than an hour had doubled. GMB Scotland recently said:

“The understaffing crisis in the ambulance service was already understood pre-Covid”.

Why did the SNP not recognise that at that time? Why did it actively choose to ignore the historical call from front-line staff to fix the problem before we reached the crisis? Does the cabinet secretary agree that the forthcoming winter plan that we are waiting for should have formed an essential component of the NHS recovery plan?

It is clear that the pandemic has exposed the weaknesses that were there before. We have heard concerning reports from NHS staff that the Golden Jubilee hospital, Stobhill hospital and the Royal hospital for children are seriously understaffed and are struggling to cope with the volume of patients and that treatment at each hospital site is now severely limited. Can the First Minister confirm whether any departments have been closed to new patients and whether elective surgery has been stopped in any of those hospitals?

We have heard a lot about the development of the review of the records of the 200,000 women who have been permanently excluded from the screening programme. How long does the minister expect the review to take?

This time, Presiding Officer.

Last week, Scottish National Party members of Parliament in Westminster voted against £1.1 billion of extra national health service funding. Even though our health service is in crisis and the SNP Government has called for more money from the UK Government, SNP MPs refused to back an annual extra £1.1 billion for Scotland’s NHS and social services. Will the cabinet secretary explain why the SNP MPs voted against giving more money to the NHS and social care in Scotland?

I think that I have a supplementary question after Mr Johnson.

During the pandemic, many other healthcare professionals—optometrists, pharmacists, nurses—saw patients face to face. Does the minister not believe that now is the time that GPs started doing the same?

Scotland’s accident and emergency service is in crisis. Waiting times have spiralled out of control and referral times are equally bad. Our workforce in the NHS is at breaking point. A fifth of patients, and more than a quarter of all vulnerable children, are waiting too long for their mental health treatment.

There is no doubt that the creation of a national care service would be a massive undertaking. Has the SNP reached a new low in self-awareness? I am sure that I am not alone in wondering why the Scottish Government thinks that it can run a national care service, given all the issues that it faces running the long-established NHS. The drug death rate has almost tripled on the SNP’s watch, deaths caused by alcohol are at their highest level since 2008, waiting times for residential rehab can be up to a year, Frank’s law has not yet been fully implemented, and yet the SNP wants more powers and responsibilities, when it is incapable of using those that it already has.

We know that, under the SNP Government, Scotland is facing an A and E crisis and that NHS waiting lists are faring no better. We have heard that, before the pandemic, 450,000 people were on the waiting lists and now that figure is topping 600,000. The crisis is an indicator that the entire system is fractured. Behind every statistic is a person—often in chronic, debilitating pain—or a family who are desperate for help. They have all been failed by the SNP, which has shown no leadership or detailed plan of action.

The SNP has neglected the NHS and the people of Scotland for years. The SNP should stop trying to rewrite history when the facts clearly tell a different story. The pandemic did not cause this crisis—the SNP did. Bed capacity had been routinely operating at 95 per cent before the pandemic. The SNP spoke of admissions, but not of discharges.

The public have demonstrated immense gratitude to all those working in the NHS throughout the pandemic and beforehand. Covid has made NHS staff work harder and faster than ever before. I know that at first hand because I have stood and worked alongside them for many years. I am not telling how many years—it gives my age away.

Other amendments focus on the workforce challenges. One in 17 people already work in the NHS in Scotland and there is now a longstanding recruitment crisis. Across Scotland, a record 4,854 nursing and midwifery posts are vacant. A significant number of nursing staff are on work-related sick leave through stress and other mental health issues. Where are we going to find the 1,500 new staff for the treatment centres? How long will it take us to train them?

In 2017, SNP ministers pledged to recruit 800 general practitioners by 2027. However, with just over 200 GPs added to the overall national headcount right now, it looks like that target will be missed, too.

Mr Hoy spoke of the 197 warnings that were issued by the Care Inspectorate over staff shortages in care homes. Staffing levels are reaching crisis point in all healthcare sectors across Scotland. There is no overnight solution to the workforce crisis. The SNP’s NHS recovery plan is a flimsy pamphlet that recycles old promises and fails to tackle the longstanding issues—[Interruption.] I have literally 12 seconds left.

The plan is full of gaps. The Scottish Conservatives believe that healthcare professionals should be given the support that they need to end the backlog in treatments in hospitals, restore A and E waiting times, speed up our ambulance service and return to full, face-to-face GP surgeries. Scotland’s NHS needs a real plan to get our health service back on track.

The BECTU submission speaks about how the expectations and ambitions of your workers across the sector have changed significantly. I assume that that relates to the fair work principles that we have heard about. I am looking for a bit more detail on the specifics behind that statement, because you also say that

“the essence of the industry is the ‘Live experience’ and that is unlikely to change”.

Is there potentially a conflict between consumer expectation and workers’ expectation in relation to fair work principles? How might that hamper or be an opportunity for your recovery?

When I was looking through the submissions today, I noted that Mr Dallman suggests that there

“could be a 3-year recovery cycle”

for the UK music industry. If you have been listening to the news, which I am sure you have, you will know that, later today, the Scottish Government is likely to vote for the introduction of vaccine certification. How will that impact on your sector’s recovery? What will be needed to compensate for, provide financial support for, implement and manage a system in which passports will be needed for access to venues and live events?

You said that the share is 2.5 per cent, but what is the number of actual viewers?