Chamber and committees

I would like to raise with the First Minister the case of a constituent who has contacted me after being told that the waiting list for a YAG laser capsulotomy treatment can be as long as 70 weeks. That constituent is going blind, struggling to care for disabled children and having difficulty sleeping because he needs the procedure.

I have already raised the matter with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, who blamed the pandemic for the waiting times. Contrary to the cabinet secretary’s response, though, NHS Lothian has told me that the waiting times are not in fact down to Covid but instead down to lack of lasers available to perform the treatment.

I therefore ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government is doing to ensure that the NHS has the equipment that it needs to tackle the waiting list. Is it acceptable for people with failing eyesight to be told that they are on a 16-month waiting list for a treatment that typically takes only a few minutes?

I thank the minister for that answer, but does he agree with me that, this winter, the situation facing social care workers—who have, for too long, been underpaid and undervalued in our society—is another example of why they cannot afford to wait for a national care service before they see real improvement in their working conditions?

To ask the Scottish Government what specific measures are being taken to support social care workers during the cost of living crisis. (S6O-01722)

Good morning, minister, colleagues and the team. Last week, the committee was given evidence of fuel poverty rates across Scotland. Will the move to break the link with the weather not further disadvantage some already fuel-poor areas such as in the Highlands and Islands, for example?

Yes. I am good with that—thank you. When I join the meeting online, I sometimes miss a few things.

When discussing theme 1, the minister talked about uprating the £50 payment. Is there any planned framework for that or—[Inaudible.]—winter heating payments? The minister talked about that when Mr Balfour asked his question. Is there any plan to uprate that payment?

I will wait for the budget report.

Yesterday, the BBC reported a slowdown in recruitment in the games sector in Scotland as it responds to the cost of living crisis and economic uncertainty. Given Scotland’s historic place in the industry, has the minister had discussions with the sector about the support that it needs to continue growing and realise its full economic potential?

I pay tribute to the committee members and staff for their work in producing the report, which covers a very wide range of issues across Scottish society, under the umbrella of health inequalities. I also thank the witnesses who gave evidence to the committee, to allow it to develop the report on such an important subject.

I will focus my attention on the very welcome recommendation from the committee to treat the elimination of poverty as a public health measure. As a member of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee, I am grateful that the health committee considered our recent reports as part of its report. The report introduces itself with a history of the failed actions to reduce health inequalities in Scotland.

I am glad that the committee clearly lays out the gravity of the health inequalities that are faced in Scotland, because we do not do ourselves any favours by sugar-coating the situation. As Scottish parliamentarians, it is incumbent on all of us to find a way to tackle the distinct problem that we face.

To that end, as a co-convener of the cross-party group on improving Scotland’s health, I am grateful to colleagues from the CPGs on diabetes, heart and circulatory diseases, lung health and stroke for agreeing to participate in a joint inquiry into non-communicable diseases.

I am also grateful to the British Heart Foundation for supporting that work. Although NCDs are only one aspect of the health inequalities in Scotland, I am hopeful that by pooling the resources of our CPGs, we will be able to come up with recommendations to help the situation.

These inequalities are close to home. In 2018, a report found that a boy born that year in Muirhouse or West Pilton had a life expectancy that was 13 years shorter than that of a boy born in neighbouring Cramond. That is shocking, and it was so before Covid-19, which the committee’s report tells us has made health inequalities considerably worse across the board.

The most recent report from the National Records of Scotland shows that in the past 10 years, improvements in life expectancy have stalled and, most recently, have started to reverse. That reverse is put down to Covid, but the stall was not. Decreases in deaths from heart disease have slowed; deaths from drugs have risen. It is important for us all to find ways to halt and reverse those trends and to improve life expectancy in Scotland. Perhaps greater use of organisations such as the fantastic Pilton Community Health Project, which is a community wellbeing programme in north Edinburgh, can bring to bear local expertise where it might help.

The committee makes clear that, sadly, there is no magic bullet to fix those issues. It will take systemic change across a variety of systems. For example, the report highlights the way that systemic racism creates poverty, and we know that poverty leads to poorer lifelong outcomes.

In 2020, Hannah Lawrence produced a comprehensive report for Edinburgh & Lothians Regional Equality Council—ELREC—which detailed the barriers of poverty and inequality for ethnic minorities in Scotland. I draw members’ attention to my entry in the register of members’ interests—I am co-chair of ELREC.

Ethnic minorities in Scotland often face multiple overlapping disadvantages that cannot be fixed by any single initiative. As I said earlier, it is incumbent on us all to work towards fixing those problems. I thank the committee for guiding us in that work.

The Scottish Government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic included accommodating in hotels and other single-room accommodation people who had been sleeping rough. Under its “Ending Homelessness Together” action plan, will the Scottish Government make similar provision for weather crises such as cold spells, and prioritise the transition to settled accommodation after such crises?