Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government’s amendment rightly congratulates the team at Wishaw university hospital on being named UK neonatal team of the year 2023. It is a wonderful achievement and one that we should all celebrate, but we are in a ridiculous situation in which the Government is praising Wishaw’s neonatal unit in one breath and downgrading it in another. We need the Government to make sense. For the parents, families and healthcare professionals who know the unit inside out, the decision is absurd, out of touch and dangerous.

The Scottish Government will be making a terrible mistake if it allows the neonatal unit at Wishaw to be downgraded. The petition against the plans that has been spearheaded by Lanarkshire mum Lynne McRitchie has already been signed by more than 12,000 people. The widespread community outrage and worry is unsurprising, as Wishaw’s neonatal team are like a second family for so many in our communities.

I thank everyone who has signed the petition and I pay tribute to Lynne McRitchie, who is in the public gallery. We are also joined by Angela Tierney from Blantyre, who told me that the care that the neonatal team provides to babies, including her son Olly, is provided as if the babies were their own children—care is provided with love, compassion and enormous skill. When Angela gave birth to Olly, she was extremely ill and, like Stephanie Griffin, she could not be moved. Olly received excellent care at Wishaw hospital but, sadly, he died. He was only five days old. The memories that Angela, her husband Barry and their family were able to make in their community with Olly will stay with them for ever.

Under the Government plans, Olly would have been transferred from Wishaw and separated from his extremely ill mother, and the Tierney family would have been robbed of precious time with their Olly. The minister and every MSP should think about Olly when we vote tonight. Olly is not a statistic; he was and is a precious member of a loving family and community that continues to fundraise for team Ollybear Blantyre, raising vital funds for Wishaw’s neonatal unit in his memory.

I am so disappointed by the letter that I received from the minister last week in response to our request for a pause and a rethink. Jenni Minto attempts to justify the downgrade by saying,

“This will affect a very small number of families in Lanarkshire.”

She should tell that to the Tierneys, the McRitchies and the Griffins. As we heard from Rosa’s dad—my brilliant colleague Mark Griffin—it is a life-saving unit, and the minister would do well to listen properly to families. I and my colleagues have listened. Members should listen to Lynne McRitchie, who believes that her son Innes would not be alive today if he had been transferred to Glasgow, Edinburgh or Aberdeen. Innes is thriving today, thanks in large part to Wishaw’s neonatal team.

We have heard from Jackie Baillie that the Government’s downgrading plans are having an impact now. Several nurse recruits who had accepted job offers have withdrawn following the publication of the appraisal report in July. NHS Lanarkshire needs support with recruitment and retention, especially in the aftermath of the board’s code black status, but the plans will undermine that.

Do ministers really intend to separate families at a critical and traumatic time? How can the Government claim to be tackling inequality when it is downgrading a vital neonatal unit in one of Scotland’s largest and most deprived health boards? The strength and scale of the community reaction to the proposal should give the Government pause for consideration on whether it really represents the best start. The Government has not properly included families or staff in Lanarkshire. However, it is not too late. It should start listening, fix this flawed process and stop the downgrade of Wishaw’s neonatal unit.

I appreciate that a lot of the work started before the minister was in post. Now that the matter is on her desk, what steps has she taken to go back to check that everything is in line, as it should be? She has talked about the importance of clinicians, but what has she done to make sure that there was no one missing from the discussion? The information in my folder suggests that the process is flawed.

Will Collette Stevenson give way?

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I wonder whether you can provide some advice. Collette Stevenson is concerned that Scottish Labour has not given enough time for the subject. The Scottish Government has given zero time. How could we go about getting a debate in Government time to allow Collette Stevenson and others to make fuller contributions?

I, too, thank Meghan Gallacher for securing the debate and for bringing everyone together. I join her in paying tribute to all the campaigners and families in Caithness, in Moray and, indeed, in Lanarkshire, on whom I will focus in my remarks.

I know that Meghan Gallacher feels this personally, as a mum who gave birth to her baby girl in Wishaw just last year. My daughter was born in the same hospital—not last year, but 17 years ago. A few years ago, Richard Leonard and I had a lovely special visit to the hospital so that we could go and meet staff and listen to those who work in maternity and neonatal care. To my surprise, I was reunited with my midwife, who gave me the biggest hug. I was humbled that she remembered me, and we had a lovely chat.

In my earlier speech, I mentioned that, to families who have had experience of being in the neonatal department, the staff there feel like family. They feel that genuine love, compassion and care. Continuity of care is really important.

Earlier today, I made the mistake of sitting behind Mark Griffin while he made his speech. I agree with Graham Simpson that it was very moving. The fact that Mark and his family have been so open about their struggles has helped other families, particularly in relation to the financial support that Mark’s campaigning has helped to secure. In the debate, we have heard a lot about mitigation and the support that people might be able to get if the plan goes ahead, but the whole point is that we can prevent such trauma from happening.

I should also say that Mark Griffin has had to leave the chamber because Rosa needs to be picked up from Rainbows tonight, but I am sure that we would all welcome that—we would not begrudge Rosa her Rainbows experience.

As the minister knows, I chair the cross-party group on women’s health. I am very passionate about women’s health, and I make no apology for that, but I have to say that on the point about the impact on women—the birth trauma that Douglas Ross has addressed—so many issues that affect women also affect dads, partners and family units, and they can have lifelong impacts. It does not need to be like that.

I am quite jealous of Jenni Minto, as she probably has one of the best jobs in Government as Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health. She is sitting here as a lonely figure tonight, but we do not want her to be alone in this—we do not want her to be burdened with this terrible dilemma. People want to help: the people in the gallery want to help. Our communities know what they are talking about and they want to help, too.

I would actually quite like Richard Leonard to be the minister who is looking at this, because he went through the issues forensically. He asked the questions that ministers need to be asking civil servants and clinicians. We must be forensic, and we must get to the bottom of this. Carol Mochan was very clear about that earlier, and she hit the nail on the head when she asked: where is the transparency? Where are all the documents? NHS Lanarkshire was not even properly at the table, a point that the Royal College of Midwives has made in its briefings.

There is not a lot of time left. I hope that Collette Stevenson asks her business manager to secure a proper debate in the Parliament, because parents who are sitting in the gallery tonight have messaged me to ask, “What does this actually mean? What did that vote actually do?” The vote endorsed the downgrading of the neonatal unit, and that is not what people want. We are going to live to regret that, minister.

As we have heard from some of the families that have been mentioned this afternoon, significant long-term complications can be linked to premature birth and the need for neonatal care. The ability to go back to our local hospital and see those familiar faces—to have that institutional knowledge that Richard Leonard talked about—is something that money cannot buy.

So, yes, this is a dark plan. This downgrading will be dangerous. However, it is not too late, minister—we can stop it.

The question that I wanted to ask the minister earlier, when she did not take an intervention, was this: when did she last go to University hospital Wishaw? When did she last visit the neonatal unit, speak to the staff and try to walk in their shoes to understand the situation? We cannot sit behind a desk or in this Parliament and just write them off. Please listen—these people are award winning for a reason.

Will the member give way?

That is great. You have anticipated my final question by mentioning community wealth. I am interested to find out how the Government is working behind the scenes to make sure that it takes a cross-portfolio approach. What work is being done with other ministers in terms of land reform and your aspirations to make sure that there is alignment between just transition and community wealth building? How does that work in practice?

That is great; thank you. What action has the Government taken to respond to the Land Commission’s 2018 recommendations on community ownership? What expectations does the Government have of the community land leadership group?

Perhaps this can be followed up in writing. I realise that we may have got muddled and that we can clarify things in writing. The figure of £500 million relates to bus priority measures. Is the Government still committed to that investment and when will we see those measures being delivered? If there is no time to get into that, perhaps we can get that in writing.

I think that you have covered most of it. It was about expectations on the community land leadership group and what action the Government is taking on the 2018 recommendations.