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Chamber and committees

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 16 February 2025
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Displaying 703 contributions

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Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

First Minister’s Question Time

Meeting date: 6 February 2025

Jackie Baillie

We know that outsourcing scans is a sticking-plaster approach that is favoured by the Scottish Government, but the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Radiologists say that there is a real need to train and recruit more radiologists if we are to have a sustainable service in the long term. The First Minister knows that the lack of radiologists results in increased waiting times for cancer diagnosis and treatment. The last quarter’s performance shows that the 31-day and 62-day targets were both missed yet again, which is worse than the previous quarter. The First Minister has been at the heart of this Government for the past 18 years, so can he explain to the people of Scotland why cancer waiting times are worse on his watch?

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

First Minister’s Question Time

Meeting date: 6 February 2025

Jackie Baillie

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to address the reported shortage in clinical radiologists, which is projected to rise to 263 fewer posts than needed by 2028. (S6F-03787)

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Health and Social Care Workforce

Meeting date: 29 January 2025

Jackie Baillie

I will do so briefly.

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Health and Social Care Workforce

Meeting date: 29 January 2025

Jackie Baillie

Will the cabinet secretary take an intervention?

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Decision Time

Meeting date: 29 January 2025

Jackie Baillie

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I apologise. My phone was in the possession of information technology staff because my app would not connect. I would have voted no.

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Health and Social Care Workforce

Meeting date: 29 January 2025

Jackie Baillie

I do indeed. That is the situation that I was describing. Alex Cole-Hamilton and I are of one mind on this.

The BMA says that there are more than 1,000 consultant vacancies, which is enough to staff two large hospitals, but the Scottish Government reports only 397. That shows yet more understaffing, which does not help to tackle waiting lists. Since 2019, the NHS has spent more than £900 million on private agency nurses and locum consultants in a desperate attempt to plug the gaps. That is a sticking plaster instead of real solutions, and it comes at a cost that is greater than the cost of employing those staff directly in the NHS. We also know there are not enough nurses in the NHS to meet demand and provide safe care. High vacancy levels persist, and the latest data shows that 2,380 nursing and midwifery jobs are lying vacant.

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health produced a report last year called “Worried and Waiting”. It includes a number of recommendations to deal with critical workforce pressures, including a call for a specific strategy for the child health workforce. It also highlights rota gaps, which are not good for patient safety. Has any of that been addressed? Macmillan Cancer Support warns about a “cancer care gap” as the numbers of people with cancer rise but that is not matched by an increase in the workforce. Marie Curie tells us about the lack of palliative care staff and even a lack of training for generalist staff about end-of-life care.

I turn to mental health. Scottish Action for Mental Health reports a significant increase in demand for services for adults and children, and we also know about that from our constituency casework. The SNP promised access to a mental health worker for every general practice. A thousand new people were to be recruited, but the budget was cut in 2023. That is another pledge that was jettisoned by the SNP.

We all know that the SNP Government received record funding from the United Kingdom Labour Government in the latest budget, yet it has chosen not to invest in a proper workforce plan. To be clear, I note that that is a political choice that the Government has made. The SNP has the money and the power but it has simply chosen not to use them. It knows that staff are crying out for support, yet those staff are being ignored—so much so that the First Minister could not be bothered to invite Unison to his health meeting last week. He is happy to use health and social care staff as his human shield, but he is not happy to sit down with them to understand the challenges that they face.

I mentioned the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care. He is supposed to be responsible for health and social care at the top table of Government, but he has been distracted by limogate and sidelined by his boss. However, to be frank, I am not sure that the First Minister is any more competent. As finance secretary, John Swinney cut £70 million from social care while people were stuck in hospitals because they were unable to get care packages. As finance secretary, he cut £65 million from primary care services, making it more difficult for people to get a GP appointment. As Deputy First Minister, he was at the heart of Government and was responsible for overseeing delivery when delayed discharge soared, A and E waits went up and the Scottish Government failed to meet the 62-day cancer target in every year since 2012.

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Portfolio Question Time

Meeting date: 29 January 2025

Jackie Baillie

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the public inquiry into the investigation of Emma Caldwell’s murder. (S6O-04258)

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Portfolio Question Time

Meeting date: 29 January 2025

Jackie Baillie

I do not think that anyone can help but be disturbed at the failings of the justice system in this case. Emma Caldwell’s family have been asking for a public inquiry to be chaired by a judge from outwith Scotland in order to give them confidence that the process will be truly independent. Has the cabinet secretary agreed to that? Can she provide any indication of when the inquiry is likely to start?

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Health and Social Care Workforce

Meeting date: 29 January 2025

Jackie Baillie

Let me begin on a note of consensus. The staff of NHS Scotland and those who work in social care do an incredible job. They are the backbone of the national health service and of social care; without them, the services would collapse, so they deserve our heartfelt thanks. However, they are firefighting in a broken system, and they are telling us that things cannot go on like this. Staff are leaving the NHS and social care in their droves and far too many are being signed off with exhaustion and poor mental health. They are burnt out because our NHS and our social care system are in a state of crisis. Responsibility for that lies squarely with the Scottish National Party Government.

Right now, more than 863,000 Scots are stuck on an NHS waiting list, and more than 100,000 of them have been there for over a year. In Scotland, more than 7,000 patients have waited more than two years for surgery. In contrast, in England—which has a population more than 10 times the size of Scotland’s—only 151 people have been waiting more than two years. Cancer patients are being let down as treatment targets are not met. Thousands of children are stuck on child and adolescent mental health services waiting lists while countless others are turned away. Health inequalities are widening and life expectancy is declining. Two thousand Scots are currently stuck in hospital who have been medically cleared to leave but are unable to do so.

I say very politely to the First Minister—who was very animated with me last week—that, across a whole host of measures, things are getting worse and not better. To deny the pressures that the NHS in Scotland is facing is, frankly, delusional, and I am tired of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care telling me that things are actually okay. The situation is causing moral injury to the staff. It compromises patient safety and results in worse outcomes. However, members should not just take my word for it. In the Royal College of Nursing’s damning report on corridor care, which is now the norm, one nurse said:

“I am now in the process of leaving the nhs … It is fraying at the seams and has left me with mental health problems and trauma.”

The crisis cannot be blamed on winter flu cases or Covid-19. The NHS was sailing into troubled waters long before 2020 and the SNP has been in charge for all of that time. For 18 years, it has failed time and time again to protect the health service and to plan for its future.

Let me be honest: attempts at workforce planning have been woeful. The SNP must own the consequences of that, because the evidence is there for all to see. Audit Scotland reports that the target of 800 more general practitioners by 2027 is unlikely to be met. The British Medical Association tells us that an extra 1,000 GPs are needed just to stand still and meet current demand, and it also points out that, despite the Government’s promise, GP numbers are declining and not increasing. At the same time, patient numbers are rising. GPs simply cannot care for more people with the current capacity. It is little wonder that people vote with their feet and head to out-of-hours or accident and emergency departments because they cannot get appointments.

Last night, we were told about GPs in the Lothians who are unemployed. I will repeat that: they are unemployed. At least one is working for Uber. Others go to Australia to work for one month on and one month off. At a time when we are short of GPs and patient demand is increasing, what is the Government thinking? It is a shocking waste of talent that could be deployed in our NHS.

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Health and Social Care Workforce

Meeting date: 29 January 2025

Jackie Baillie

I will not.

I genuinely worry about what John Swinney will do next.

Instead of taking any responsibility, the SNP hides behind the staff and repels every criticism as, somehow, the Opposition talking down the staff and suggesting that they are incapable. For the record, I note that it is not NHS staff or social care staff that are incapable—it is this SNP Government. I will give the Parliament a few examples. The Scottish Government spends around £60,000 for each student nurse to train at a Scottish university, when we take into account study and bursary costs. That is money well spent for such an important role. However, last year, almost 100 graduate paediatric and adult nurses were told that there were no jobs for them, despite staff shortages. Budget cuts meant vacancy freezes. In fact, last year, the SNP quietly cut 1,500 nursing and midwifery jobs from the establishment records before any budget cuts had even begun. Posts were simply wiped out overnight.

Since then, I have been contacted by paramedic graduates who have experienced the same problem, and by junior doctors who have been told that they will need to undertake their speciality training in Northern Ireland as there is nothing happening in Scotland. I have heard from graduate pharmacists, such as Abbie, who have been told that, due to a lack of funding, there will be no foundational training year for them in Scotland and that they will have to go to England if they want to continue. The Scottish Government is paying to train health and care staff for the benefit of every NHS in the UK except NHS Scotland. If that is not incompetence, I do not know what is.

The current pressures in our hospitals are due in part to this Government’s failure to fix the problems in social care. More than 9,000 Scots are waiting on care assessments or packages. We know that there is a chronic shortage of support because we do not have the staff, but we do not have the staff because they are not treated with the respect that they deserve so they head for the exit door. Is it any wonder that many of them are going to work in retail, where they are often paid more and have less stress? Year after year, Labour has consistently argued for a minimum of £15 an hour with finance ministers Kate Forbes and John Swinney, who are both deaf to the plight of social care staff. What happened to the missing £50 million for fair work to improve terms and conditions for social care staff? It was cancelled by ministers at the 11th hour. That tells us all that we need to know about how much the SNP values social care.

Scotland cannot keep paying the price for the SNP’s financial mismanagement and waste. Its recklessness is a betrayal of the NHS and social care staff who have gone above and beyond to keep services going and patients safe. After nearly 18 years of failure and decline from the SNP, it is time to change the team. Scottish Labour will ensure that our NHS and social care sectors have a 10-year workforce plan that creates enough medical and nursing training places; values nurses, doctors and all NHS staff; and meets the needs of future generations?of patients. We will deliver faster access to GPs and tackle long waits for treatment once and for all by taking full advantage of our untapped potential.

Scottish Labour is and has always been the party that is willing to stand up for workers, protect our NHS and invest in social care. Scotland’s NHS needs a new direction and Scottish Labour is ready to deliver it.

I move,

That the Parliament deeply regrets that there is a continuing crisis in both the NHS and social care; recognises that staff are the backbone of the NHS and that the Scottish Government has failed to effectively workforce plan; understands that the consequences of this failure are that patients are suffering from poorer outcomes, hard-working staff are experiencing moral injury, and NHS graduates are not being employed, and calls on the Scottish Government to urgently bring forward a 10-year health and social care workforce plan that meets the needs of the people of Scotland.