Chamber and committees

Getting more people to use public transport will help to tackle two of the most significant challenges facing us today: the cost of living crisis and the climate emergency. By bringing Scotland’s rail into public hands, along with the pilot to scrap peak rail fares, as well as by enabling free bus travel for the over-60s, people with disabilities and young people under the age of 22, the Scottish National Party Government is taking decisive action to promote public transport usage.

Another way in which I believe that we could increase the number of people using public transport is through publicly controlled bus services. Will the minister outline how local authorities such as South Lanarkshire Council can now do that through the new powers that have been given to them under the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019?

Does Scottish Labour support Wes Streeting in his calls to privatise the NHS?

Will the member give way?

I ask the member to please clarify some things relating to a couple of points that I raised in my speech. The Welsh health minister said that Covid has had an impact on NHS waiting times. Does the member disagree with that? Does Scottish Labour support Wes Streeting—[Interruption.]

I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests, which shows that I hold a bank nurse contract with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

As someone who proudly continues to work in our NHS, I am under no illusions about the challenges that it currently faces. In the years ahead, those challenges will become more pronounced as a result of demographic changes and the expected increase in disease burden. It is therefore abundantly clear that significant investment in our NHS and, indeed, reform of the delivery of care are of paramount importance.

In the face of Tory austerity, the Tories’ shameful autumn statement and their mishandling of the economy, which has caused inflation to run rampant, the SNP Scottish Government is taking the necessary decisions to ensure that there is continued investment in health and social care services. In the draft budget, the Deputy First Minister announced an increase of more than £550 million to front-line NHS boards, which is a 4.3 per cent uplift that takes the total investment to more than £13.2 billion. Scottish Government funding of the NHS has ensured record high staffing levels. The funding will drive forward work to increase health service capacity, including through a network of national treatment centres, and it will reduce backlogs, delivering year-on-year reductions in waiting lists.

On that point, yes, of course too many people have waited too long for treatment. However, I welcome the fact that we have seen a significant reduction in the longest waits since the targets were announced, last July. That includes a 69 per cent reduction in patients waiting over two years for a new out-patient appointment from the end of June 2022. There has also been a 26 per cent reduction in patients waiting longer than two years for in-patient or day-case treatment since the targets were announced. That is welcome progress, but we know that there is still more to be done.

Scottish Labour never wants to talk about the significant and on-going impact that Covid has on our health service, notably in the area of planned care, as well as other external factors. It should listen to the Welsh Government’s Minister for Health and Social Services, who said only in the past week:

“The pressures on the NHS are unrelenting in every part of the UK.”

Over the past 13 years, the NHS, like other public services, has had to contend with austerity, the impact of a botched Brexit, the pandemic, record levels of inflation and rising demand. It is not difficult to work out why it is so challenged across the whole UK.

It is also worth noting that, while we are sitting in the chamber, junior doctors are striking in Wales, where Labour is in power. The NHS is nothing without its dedicated workforce, and I am proud that, due to the value that the SNP Government places on our health staff, Scotland remains the only country in the UK to have been successful in averting NHS strikes. In doing so, we have avoided the knock-on effect that that would have had on capacity, through postponed operations and on out-patient appointments.

That was looking at Wales, where Labour is in power. Even at Westminster, where it is in opposition, it is clear that Labour does not have the plans or ambition to tackle the challenges that health services across the UK face. Labour’s shadow health secretary has said that a UK Labour Government would

“hold the door wide open”

to private sector involvement in the NHS. He has also stated that he does not think that it is good enough that the NHS uses every winter crisis and every challenge that it faces as an excuse to ask for more money. That is hardly supportive of the hard-working staff for whom we hear faint praise from Opposition members.

Labour’s only plan for our NHS seems to be opening it up to the private sector’s involvement, starving it of much-needed investment, supporting a Brexit that impacts on the recruitment of health and social care staff, and undervaluing NHS staff, which leads to strikes. The Scottish Government remains committed to driving down waiting times, particularly for the people who wait the longest for treatment. We are resolute in doing what we can to support our workforce through ensuring record levels of staff, promoting their wellbeing and protecting and providing proper pay increases. We are absolutely committed to keeping our NHS publicly owned, with no private sector involvement, and free at the point of need.

Will the member give way?

I remind the committee that members should not put questions to the cabinet secretary during the formal debate and that officials may not speak in the debate. I invite members who wish to contribute to make themselves known.

Has the cabinet secretary considered making the Health and Care Professions Council—HCPC—a regulator for PAs and AAs? If consideration was given to that, why did you decide, as have other parts of the UK, that regulation by the GMC would be more appropriate?

The second item on our agenda is the consideration of evidence from the Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care, Michael Matheson, as part of the committee’s scrutiny of the Scottish Government’s 2024-25 budget. I welcome to the meeting Michael Matheson and Richard McCallum, who is the director of health and social care finance, digital and governance at the Scottish Government. I invite the cabinet secretary to make a brief opening statement.

Will Sandesh Gulhane take an intervention on that point?