In Parliament

Today I spoke in Parliament on an opposition debate on our NHS primary care services. The challenges that face Scotland’s NHS are plain for us all to see, however, what does not serve our Parliament well is the Labour Party presenting false accusations as though they are factual, when they are patently and demonstrably untrue. This is an exercise of significant deceit and, indeed, hypocrisy to suggest that the Scottish Government is considering privatising the NHS.

We are committed to keeping the NHS free at the point of contact.

It was our SNP Government that abolished prescription charges, which were in place when Labour was last in control of our Parliament.

It is our SNP Scottish Government that has maintained free eye tests in this country - tests that cost over £20 for an eye test in Labour-controlled Wales.

And, of course, the Labour Party that brought private finance initiatives to our NHS in Scotland, and PFI and public-private partnership contracts still cost the Scottish Government £250 million every single year

Full text of speech:

I am not sure about grasping the thistle—I think that the Labour Party is clutching at straws, with this debate.

The challenges that face Scotland’s NHS are plain for us all to see, but so is the clear, focused and considered action of the Scottish Government in seeking to address those challenges—some of which I will return to later in this short debate. It is, of course, right that our Scottish Government’s NHS recovery plan be properly scrutinised. In that context, this debate could serve Parliament well.

However, what does not serve our Parliament well is the Labour Party presenting, in a motion on the Scottish NHS, false accusations as though they are factual, when they are patently and demonstrably untrue. It is an exercise of significant deceit and, indeed, hypocrisy to suggest that the Scottish Government is considering privatising the NHS. With regard to Scotland’s NHS being free at the point of use, it was our SNP Government that abolished prescription charges, which were in place when Labour was last in control of this Parliament. It is our SNP Scottish Government that has maintained free eye tests in this country; it costs over £20 for an eye test in Labour-controlled Wales.

It was, of course, the Labour Party that brought private finance initiatives to our NHS in Scotland, and PFI and public-private partnership contracts still cost the Scottish Government £250 million every single year—liabilities that were run up under the Labour Party. It was the Scottish Government, however, that sought to unpick Labour’s PFIs. Indeed, in my city of Glasgow, that was done at a cost of £26.3 million to abolish at Glasgow royal infirmary parking charges that were put in place by the Labour Party. Therefore, there will be no NHS privatisation on our watch. Thank heavens that the Labour Party is not in charge of the NHS, here, in Scotland.

I agree with Jackie Baillie in relation to the pressures on GP services. That is why I am pleased to see that efforts to recruit 800 additional GPs by 2027 are on track, with 277 already being in post by 2021. Of course we need to strive to go further; we must do more.

However, I will tell members what does not help. It does not help that, when we, in Scotland, look to attract additional GPs or to fill vacancies elsewhere in health and social care, we have a Labour Party and a Labour Party leader, in Keir Starmer, that are doubling down against freedom of movement of people and are talking about there being too many immigrants in the NHS, then deploying cheap, gutter-level right-wing rhetoric about immigration dependency. That is just shameful, Presiding Officer. It is shameful.

On the contributions that overseas workers make to our healthcare system, we need to ensure that overseas-trained GPs in Scotland do not leave because of UK visa problems. I mention that because I noted, in my preparation for today’s debate, that the chair of the BMA Scottish GP committee, Dr Andrew Buist, said:

“We are desperately short of GPs as it is, so the last thing we need is to be in a position where fully qualified clinicians are being left with no choice but to leave Scotland because of an issue with the terms and conditions of their visa.”

When the minister is summing up, I would like to hear more about our negotiations with the UK Government to resolve some of those issues.

Labour also made another important point in relation to multidisciplinary teams. Yes—we want more workers and so on, but denying the fact that since 2018, there are 3,120 more of them in our NHS just does not cut it. Yes—we need more people, but look at the progress that we have made. The year 2018 is very important because it predates the pandemic. What has happened shows that the Scottish Government was well aware of the demographic challenges in Scotland’s healthcare and social care system and was taking steps pre-Covid-19 to address them. It is a work in progress.

This year, the budget for primary care in Scotland is actually on the increase; and I note that, according to the cabinet secretary’s amendment, integration joint boards are also going to use their reserves to invest in primary care. It would be helpful to get more information from the cabinet secretary on that proposed change.

Let us try to work collegiately to improve Scotland’s NHS, but let us base the demands of the challenges that the doughty NHS faces here, in Scotland, on the facts and not on Labour fantasy.