The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Displaying 165 contributions
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Meeting date: 29 January 2025
Gordon MacDonald
I remind members that my wife is an NHS nurse.
Our NHS staff are fed up with the health service being used as a political football, and with the constant negativity from the opposition parties and their friends in the mainstream media, who continue to undermine patient and staff confidence in our NHS. It may be that that is what this debate is all about: that will come as no comfort to staff or patients.
There are challenges in our NHS, but let us put them into context, because all NHS trusts and health boards across the UK face challenges. NHS England has 7.5 million people on waiting lists and, in October, NHS Wales hit a record number of 800,000 people on waiting lists. So much for Labour having all of the answers—it cannae implement them in Wales.
In May 2007, the SNP came to power and was immediately met with the global financial crisis, as global banks collapsed and UK Government debt soared under Labour, which ushered in 14 years of Tory austerity. Cuts to public spending and welfare exacerbated inequality and increased levels of poverty and ill health which, in turn, put more pressure on NHS finances and waiting times.
In 2016, Tory Brexit happened, which brought uncertainty in our relationship with the European Union. Changes to immigration patterns created labour shortages, especially in our health and care sectors: Home Office stats highlight that there has been an 83 per cent drop in health and social care visa applications.
If that was not enough, we then had the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, which led to lockdowns, NHS staff falling ill and wards closing in order to stop infection spreading. The result was more delays and increased waiting times.
The inflation and cost of living crisis, which started in 2021 and continues to the present day, and which was caused chiefly by substantial energy price increases, has impacted the NHS budget. There is also the Labour job tax of around £140 million for the NHS, which is still to come, from April.
Those difficulties continue to this day, but it is more important to ask what the SNP has achieved against the backdrop of economic crisis that has been caused by Westminster mismanagement. First, it has doubled the NHS budget, from £9 billion in 2006-07 to £19 billion this year, with an additional £2 billion in the provisional budget for next year. We should compare that to Rachel Reeves’s decision last August to inform the Department of Health and Social Care in England that it had to find around £1.3 billion of savings in advance of the budget.
NHS Scotland’s staffing levels have benefited from a long-term trend of workforce investment and growth. Since the SNP took office, there are 31,300 more doctors, nurses and other staff working in Scotland’s NHS, which is an increase of nearly 25 per cent since 2006.
Qualified nurses on band 5 have a higher salary than those south of the border do, and nurses do not incur tuition fees when they are training and do not pay hospital parking fees. That is why the Scottish Government has been able to increase student nursing numbers every year for the past decade.
There has been capital investment in new hospitals, including the Royal hospital for children and young people in Edinburgh and the Queen Elizabeth university hospital in Glasgow, which is the biggest hospital in the UK, with 1,667 hospital beds.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Meeting date: 29 January 2025
Gordon MacDonald
Let us take stock of where we are in Scotland’s NHS. We have record health spending, the best-paid NHS staff in the UK, the highest number of qualified nurses and midwives in the UK, the highest number of GPs in the UK and the best A and E services.
Ninety-five per cent of people are registered for NHS dental care, which is the highest percentage in the UK. We have free prescriptions, 96 per cent of all hospital discharges happen without delay and hospital at home services have been expanded, thereby ensuring that older Scots get the care that they need at home.
Yes, there are challenges, but there has been progress. Under the SNP, there is a healthcare system that is more resilient, more compassionate and more determined than ever to serve the people of Scotland.
16:34Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Meeting date: 29 January 2025
Gordon MacDonald
No.
In my Edinburgh Pentlands constituency we have seen, since 2011, investment in primary care, with new doctor surgeries in Colinton Mains, Ratho and Wester Hailes. People in Edinburgh also welcome the fact that the proposed budget includes funding to progress the replacement for the Edinburgh eye pavilion.
On NHS waiting times, an Office for National Statistics survey that covered the UK asked:
“Are you currently waiting for a hospital appointment, test, or to start receiving medical treatment through the NHS?”
In Wales, 29 per cent of people were on a waiting list. In England the percentage was 25 per cent, but in Scotland it was 22 per cent—the lowest in the UK.
Compared with 2019, more people are being seen within the CAMHS waiting time target, in psychological therapies more are being helped with drug and alcohol dependencies, and more people are being seen within the cancer diagnosis and starting treatment targets.
In accident and emergency departments, no healthcare service anywhere in the UK has hit the four-hour waiting time target; however, the ONS analysis confirmed that NHS Scotland has had the best performing A and E services in Britain for well over a decade. That is backed up by NHS Scotland, which highlighted that in the year to September 2024 more than 1 million patients were seen within the four-hour target.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Meeting date: 22 January 2025
Gordon MacDonald
To ask the Scottish Government what its latest assessment is of the impact of Brexit on Scotland’s rural economy. (S6O-04220)
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Meeting date: 22 January 2025
Gordon MacDonald
Tory Brexit has had a detrimental effect on people and businesses throughout rural Scotland. Unfortunately, the Labour United Kingdom Government is continuing the economic vandalism of Brexit. Does the Scottish Government possess data on the cumulative impact of Brexit on rural Scotland across the five years since it occurred?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Meeting date: 16 January 2025
Gordon MacDonald
To ask the Scottish Government what the current value of Scotland’s renewable energy output is to the UK economy. (S6O-04215)
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Meeting date: 16 January 2025
Gordon MacDonald
It is vital that we continue to maximise Scotland’s renewables capabilities and take full advantage of our abundant natural resources. How much electricity demand is met by renewables, and how will the proposed budget continue to invest in and grow that capacity?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Meeting date: 9 January 2025
Gordon MacDonald
Scotland was the world’s first daily mile nation. Can the cabinet secretary set out the work that the Scottish Government has done to encourage further take-up of the daily mile?
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 19 December 2024
Gordon MacDonald
The UK Labour Government, which promised change, has left it to the devolved Governments to mitigate the most pernicious and costly Tory austerity measures, such as the two-child limit. Will the cabinet secretary outline the total cost to the Scottish Government of all the UK Government policies that are being mitigated, including the two-child benefit cap?
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 19 December 2024
Gordon MacDonald
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the announcement in its draft budget 2025-26 that it plans to mitigate the United Kingdom Government’s two-child benefit cap policy in Scotland, what it estimates the cost will be of doing so, per affected child. (S6O-04151)