Primary Care (Access)

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament am ar 21 Chwefror 2024.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of Willie Rennie Willie Rennie Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol

I thank everyone who has taken part in the debate. I especially thank Tim Eagle for a fine first speech, which I thought was excellent. He showed his passion for Moray, and he has a good grasp of the issues that are at play. My one bit of advice would be not to follow the lead of Sandesh Gulhane and fail to turn up for the summing-up speeches of the debate; otherwise, it was an excellent first start.

One of the issues that Mr Eagle specifically mentioned was the long distances to get access to some care, especially around maternity services and Dr Gray’s. That was the bit of Beatrice Wishart’s contribution that she was not able to squeeze in because she was far too generous to Fergus Ewing. It was about Jamie Stone’s point about maternity services in Caithness and the far north and how women have to travel hundreds of miles to get treatment. The strain must be incredible.

Alex Rowley was right. All members in the chamber recognise the value of NHS staff. We understand it. We have seen it at first hand. I have seen it at first hand over the past year with far too many family members who have spent a long time in hospital. I have seen at close quarters the pressure that NHS staff are under, and there is no doubt that all members present would thank them for the work that they are doing.

The morning call to the GP is incredibly stressful. People have to make repeated calls. Sometimes, the line is engaged if the practice does not have the right telephone system and, sometimes, people fail to get an appointment day after day. Those long waits add to the pressure, strain and anxiety that patients already feel because they believe that they have an important illness that needs to be addressed. Moreover, something might be urgent without people knowing it, so those waits might prevent us from making the early Intervention that GPs often provide.

Ivan McKee was bang on when he said that GPs were the gateway. The preventative service—the old-style family doctor—was an important part of the community. That has changed, and I am sure that everybody recognises the additional health professionals who are now part of the multidisciplinary team that the Minister just talked about. We should encourage our constituents to accept the advice from the receptionist to go to another health professional and not just insist on seeing their GP. That helps, alongside going to a pharmacy, which often provides more direct support.

Although Ivan McKee was right about that, he was a wee bit wrong in blaming the Lib Dems for everything to do with primary care. However, I accept that he is allowed to make some political points.

The Cabinet secretary acknowledged some of the issues. I accept that there are issues connected to Brexit—to which we are still opposed. The pandemic has added to the pressure, and we know that budgetary pressures apply, too. However, I have to say that there was a bit too much of blaming everybody else and not accepting the responsibility for the inordinate pressures that primary care services face.

cabinet

The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.

It is chaired by the prime minister.

The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.

Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.

However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.

War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.

From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.

The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.

intervention

An intervention is when the MP making a speech is interrupted by another MP and asked to 'give way' to allow the other MP to intervene on the speech to ask a question or comment on what has just been said.

minister

Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.