Chamber and committees

I will answer the question about delayed discharges before I come to the issues around GP services.

Of course, it is our intention and policy to eradicate delayed discharges—[Interruption.]

The Tories are always very keen to talk down Scotland’s contribution. I think that, at COP27, we will see countries around the world talking Scotland up, because they see the leadership that this country offers.

I remember on many occasions over the past years—when I was health secretary and since I have been First Minister—Conservatives coming to the chamber and criticising this Government for not using the independent sector more to tackle waiting times. It seems that, today, Douglas Ross is doing the exact opposite. I am not sure whether that is another flip-flop from Douglas Ross—that is for him to determine.

With regard to the pressures on our national health service, there has been a global pandemic since the start of 2020, which everybody knows is having an impact on services. However, let us look in more detail at the two particular issues that Douglas Ross raised.

First, with regard to radiology, under this Government, there has been an increase of 62.5 per cent in the number of clinical radiology consultants, as well as an increase in the overall NHS workforce. We have increased the number of radiography staff by 20.5 per cent. We also need to recruit internationally, but there is a global shortage of radiologists, and the challenge of international recruitment is not made easier by the policies of the Conservatives on Brexit and immigration. Nevertheless, we will continue to invest in recruitment and the overall NHS workforce.

Secondly, with regard to delayed discharges, we continue to see significant pressure across the entire health and care system. More people who are coming through hospitals need high levels of care and support in order to be discharged home, and we are investing to address that significant challenge. We are investing more than £100 million to enhance care at home, we have increased the hourly rate of pay for social care workers, and we are investing £40 million to enhance multidisciplinary teams.

However, despite those pressures, the number of average bed days occupied by delay is now similar to pre-Covid levels. The total number of delayed discharges in the most recent year is actually down by 23 per cent on the period immediately pre-Covid.

Those are significant challenges, but the policies, interventions and investment of this Government are intended to address those challenges, and we will continue to take those steps.

People are right to be worried about the ability of our national health service to cope with spending constraints and the impact of Tory mismanagement on our economy.

Since we have been in the chamber, we have heard that interest rates have been increased by the Bank of England to 3 per cent, which is the highest rate for 14 years and the biggest single increase since black Wednesday, in 1992. That is the cost to people of Tory economic mismanagement.

On the national health service, in Scotland, we have higher funding per head of population for the NHS than there is in the rest of the UK, and our accident and emergency services, although under significant pressure, are the best performing anywhere in the UK.

In terms of the agenda for change workforce and pay, I wish that we could give them more, because they deserve every penny that we can give them. However, in Scotland, they are being offered an average pay increase of 7 per cent, with more than 11 per cent for the lowest paid. That compares with 4.5 per cent in England, where the Conservatives are in power, and in Wales, where Labour is in power. We are having to fund that increase without any additional resources from the Westminster Government. Instead, on 17 November, we face the prospect of spending cuts—again, to pay for Tory economic mismanagement.

I will continue to take seriously my job of supporting the NHS, and I will take no lessons from the Conservatives, who are making such a mess of the economy, with disastrous impacts for all of our public services.

It is our priority to ensure that people who are displaced from Ukraine are looked after and well supported here. Figures that are out just today, I think, show that, since the conflict in Ukraine began, more than 21,500 people, most of whom are sponsored by the Scottish Government, have arrived here. That represents 20.8 per cent of all United Kingdom arrivals, which is testament to our desire and determination to support people from Ukraine as far as possible.

Many of the people staying at the Killin hotel wanted to move to a more central location with easier access to amenities and employment, and, by offering accommodation in Stirling, we seek to provide exactly that. We have of course listened to those Ukrainians who wanted to stay in the Killin area, such as those with employment or children in local schools, and we will help them to do that. We are working with Stirling Council and the local community to ensure that they are supported to find suitable alternative accommodation. We are aware that some of the Ukrainians will be able to stay at the hotel while they continue to be supported to find matched or longer-term accommodation.

We will continue to support everybody who has come here from Ukraine. Part of that is about supporting them out of temporary accommodation and into more settled accommodation as quickly as possible.

I understand the frustration that people working in our university sector feel at the continued dispute about their pension arrangements. It is of course a matter for universities as the employer; the Scottish Government is not the employer in this case. However, I always encourage employers to get round the table with workers to find resolution to such disputes, and I would call on Universities Scotland to do exactly that.

We are working closely with universities to ensure that the mental health support that they have in place is responsive to student needs. Over the past three academic years, we have invested more than £11.5 million in providing almost 90 additional counsellors in colleges and universities. That exceeds our programme for government commitment to provide 80 additional counsellors and is on top of what institutions already provided. We are also working with health boards to improve referral pathways to national health service and community-based services for students who are in need of acute support. Finally, in association with stakeholders, we are developing a student mental health plan, which will provide a best practice framework for mental health services in universities and colleges and will be linked to the wider mental health and wellbeing strategy.

I will always listen to those who work in our NHS, and listen very carefully because they are the experts on the situation. However, I will not insult their intelligence by pretending that the issues are easy to resolve. We will continue to support people on the front line of our national health service, with record investment supporting record recruitment into our national health service and supporting the redesign of our NHS to make sure that patients get the treatment that they need, when and where they need it. That is in the interests of those who work in our national health service, as well.

Of course, we will continue to do everything that we possibly can to reward those who work in the NHS to the fullest possible extent. That is why the pay offer that has been made to agenda for change staff is, in Scotland, an average 7 per cent compared with 4.5 per cent in England and, indeed, in Wales, where Labour is in government. We take those responsibilities extremely seriously, every single day—every minute of every single day—but the fact of the matter is that the pressures on our national health service are not divorced from wider budgetary issues.

The Welsh Labour health minister said recently that the NHS in Wales next year would be “hell on earth” without additional funding from the United Kingdom Government. She said that the Welsh Government faces a “real nightmare” in running the NHS next year unless the UK Government steps up with additional funding. How come it is the case that Labour in Wales can recognise that reality, but Labour in Scotland is clearly so thirled to defending Tories that they are blind to that reality?

We will continue to do everything that we can in terms of the management of our national health service, but the fact of the matter is that we need more funding for our national health service and that can only come from decisions that are taken at Westminster.

As Evelyn Tweed was asking a really important question, a member on the Conservative benches, from a sedentary position, asked, “What has this got to do with the Scottish Parliament?” I suggest that the state of the economy, and the fact that Brexit has caused a slump in our exports to the EU and made it so much harder to recruit staff into businesses and our public services, including health and social care, has an awful lot to do with the Scottish Parliament.

Brexit has been an unmitigated disaster—a Tory-imposed disaster. We are seeing its impacts in every walk of life, from exports to the economy and our ability to recruit into essential jobs. It is time that Brexit was reversed, but I do not expect that we will get that from the Tories and, sadly, we no longer hear that commitment from the Labour Party. The only route back into the EU for Scotland now is by becoming an independent country, and the sooner that happens, the better.

I know that the Conservatives and Labour do not like hearing this, but it is a very important point that demonstrates a fundamental fact. Independence is not abstract; it is about real issues that impact on the day-to-day lives of people across Scotland.

Take the issue that is being raised here now. Employment law, including the setting of the national minimum wage, is currently reserved entirely to the UK Government. If we had employment powers lying in the hands of those in the Scottish Parliament, which would come with independence, that would enable us to do even more to protect and enhance workers’ rights and to support working people across this country by ensuring that they are paid a living wage. That, in turn, would improve living standards, increase our tax take and boost our economy.

We will continue to call on the UK Government to do more and to devolve crucial powers, but the only way to get those powers—[Interruption.]