Chamber and committees

I thank Tim Eagle for this important debate. Like my colleagues, I also thank our exceptional healthcare workers. My daughter was recently taken into Aberdeen royal infirmary, so I know that staff are working extremely hard and doing a fantastic job under pressure.

I take this opportunity to raise some of the concerns about our declining health services that I hear of every single day as the constituency MSP for Aberdeenshire West. Our local services are at risk of collapse and our GPs are crying out for help. The cabinet secretary will be aware that I have long campaigned to keep our community hospitals open, particularly Insch war memorial hospital, which was closed at the start of Covid and remains so, despite broken promises made by two First Ministers.

Elsewhere, closures such as that of the Scolty ward dementia unit at Glen O’Dee in Banchory see services removed. The minor injuries unit in Huntly has had its overnight provision slashed, which causes a serious worry that GMED services will also soon face cuts. Those local units would relieve pressure on ambulances and the ARI, but the health board simply does not have the funds to keep them open. As has been mentioned, NHS Grampian was escalated to stage 3 of the finance framework today, which will no doubt lead to further cuts and closures.

Like others, we have also seen a reduction in services being provided locally. The SNP Government’s one-size-fits-all approach simply does not recognise the reality of our rural communities, and that has very real consequences in people’s lives. Centralisation has resulted in elderly constituents being forced to make lengthy journeys, often in areas without public transport, for something as routine as a flu jab. Some residents in Alford were even told that they should organise taxis with other patients, which is a ridiculous suggestion, considering that they would not know other patients’ appointment times due to the general data protection regulation.

As others have touched on, ambulance provision affects my whole constituency. In October, a baby was delivered under traumatic circumstances, and the family had to do CPR for half an hour on a newborn baby before an ambulance arrived.

Although I am grateful that the health secretary has agreed to meet me, I have little confidence that the SNP will implement any meaningful change after mismanaging our NHS for 18 years. Where communities find solutions—such as covering the capital cost of a new 4x4 first responder vehicle in Braemar—the Scottish Ambulance Service rejects them, saying that it will not cover the maintenance costs. I look forward to the cabinet secretary’s response to that when we meet; it is a decade after the Braemar ambulance was stripped from the community.

For rural communities, the decline of healthcare provision is now literally a matter of life and death.

Scottish National Party cuts have now created an eye-watering £26 million black hole for Aberdeenshire Council, which is part of what Audit Scotland calls a “significant increase” in the local authority “funding gap”. That has impacted on every aspect of local services: schools, libraries, bins, bridges, roads, and much more.

Across a large rural area, 16,500 street lights—

—now need to be replaced, which councils simply cannot afford.

Huntly is even looking to put lamp posts—

—into community ownership.

Will the cabinet secretary today promise to fight for a fair settlement for councils, or is she happy to see communities plunged into darkness?

I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests.

To ask the Scottish Government what additional support it will provide to local authorities in relation to holding public inquiries into onshore wind farms. (S6O-04113)

The Hill of Fare wind farm proposal has been unanimously opposed by Aberdeenshire Council and the wider community. Over the 50-year lifespan of the project, the developer, Renewable Energy Systems Ltd, would generate around £1.2 billion of income at today’s prices and the landowner, Dunecht Estates, would be paid more than £140 million in rent, while the community benefit would amount to only £26 million. If Dunecht Estates does not withdraw the application by 21 January, there will need to be a public inquiry at further cost to Aberdeenshire Council, despite whistleblowers in Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks telling me that it is already a done deal as they prepare connections.

Does the minister believe that those who profit so obscenely from the destruction of a community should bear the cost of the public inquiry, particularly at a time when councils are so stretched for cash?

To ask the Scottish Government what correspondence it has had with the United Kingdom Government regarding its proposed reforms to electricity infrastructure consenting in Scotland. (S6O-04029)

I note my entry in the register of members’ interests in respect of current and proposed pylon wayleaves.

Constituents have complained that the consultation is not user friendly, with the bulk of the questions directed towards business. The period in which to make submissions was only one month and the consultation closes tomorrow. Many of my constituents believe that the Government has deliberately made it difficult in order to reduce the number of submissions from people whose communities will be destroyed by the projects. Will the minister confirm whether he has any influence to extend the submission period?

To ask the Scottish Government when the health secretary last met the Scottish Ambulance Service to discuss rural ambulance provision. (S6O-03874)

Earlier this month, a family in Torphins had a terrifyingly long wait for an ambulance during a mother’s labour, after a call was answered by someone in Yorkshire who could not locate their rural address. As was reported in the Sunday Post, the father and the grandmother had to be talked through delivering the baby and then had to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the newborn baby for half an hour before the vehicle arrived. Thankfully, both mother and baby are healthy, but this was a completely horrifying experience that no family should have to endure.

In Aberdeenshire, journeys to Aberdeen royal infirmary can take up to two hours—not including the time waiting for an ambulance to arrive. Does the cabinet secretary think that that is acceptable? What support will be provided to ensure that rural communities have an ambulance service that meets their needs?