Seòmar agus comataidhean

To ask the Deputy First Minister how the Scottish Government will prevent further GP practice closures, in light of reports that the number of surgeries has declined in every NHS board since 2015. (S6F-03209)

What answer can the Deputy First Minister give them now? They are at breaking point.

The Scottish Government has said that it is led by evidence. The evidence is that GP surgeries in rural Scotland are closing at more than twice the rate of those in many central belt health boards. In NHS Grampian, GPs have been damning in their assessment of primary care under the Scottish Government. Here are just some recent quotes from GPs to their representative body in that area. One practice said:

“We had to switch off our phones yesterday for the first time, as we have reached our safe limit ... we felt we had no option. Feels unmanageable just now.”

Another said:

“The current situation cannot continue; staff are completely exhausted, and morale is very low.”

Another GP said:

“There has to be an easier way to make a living than this!”

I see that the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care is talking to the Deputy First Minister and giving her feedback. I am glad of that, because we cannot afford to lose more surgeries. GPs and patients across rural communities are watching and listening today.

I am sorry, but I do not have time. I would normally take an intervention.

During this week’s STV debate, John Swinney and Anas Sarwar both tried to swerve questions about the North Sea, but it was as clear as could be that the SNP and Labour still do not support new oil and gas licences or North Sea exploration. That has a direct impact on the energy sector in Scotland and investment in it.

The energy transition survey that was published just last week by the Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce lays out, in the starkest of terms, what the situation looks like. It reports that confidence among companies that work on the UK continental shelf is now lower than it was during the financial crash and the pandemic, when oil prices were as low as $16 a barrel. A presumption against new licences would force us to import more oil and gas from overseas, at higher cost and with a greater carbon footprint, eroding our energy security at the same time.

However we look at it, the approach taken by the SNP and Labour does not make sense—it is economically and environmentally illiterate. It is a double blow for the north-east, because those communities are bearing the brunt of the new transmission infrastructure that is puncturing our countryside and decimating our prime productive arable land.

The Scottish Conservatives will keep standing up for our oil and gas industry. This week, Douglas Ross was, once again, unwavering in his support, while Anas Sarwar and John Swinney were all at sea. We are the only party that supports new oil and gas licences and, at the same time, supports the growth of highly skilled and highly paid roles in the renewables sector. We will not allow the oil and gas industry to be shut down, and we will not abandon the North Sea workers whose livelihoods depend on it.

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the implementation of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 since it came into force on 1 April 2024. (S6O-03531)

I have been liaising with Police Scotland about engagement with women’s groups on the implications of the hate crime act for their lawful meetings. Disappointingly, Police Scotland has indicated to me that it will not participate in that vital engagement while it is in the process of developing longer-term policies around the 2021 act.

Does the minister or the cabinet secretary agree that input from women’s groups should influence the process and should not occur after it has concluded? Will the minister and the cabinet secretary make representations to Police Scotland to ensure that women’s voices are heard?

Thousands of livelihoods across the north-east rely on the oil and gas industry, not to mention the wider supply chain across Scotland. The industry supports the Scottish economy to the tune of almost £19 billion, and upwards of 94,000 jobs—that is massive by any standard.

People would be forgiven for expecting SNP and Labour politicians to want to safeguard such an important sector. However, the SNP, Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens want to turn off the taps in the North Sea and turn their backs on oil and gas. Hard-working and highly skilled North Sea workers would pay the price of political virtue signalling, with calls for the fastest possible transition to net zero.

Patrick Harvie has demonstrated that he lives in a bubble. I invite him to come up to the north-east and say what he said today to the hard-working families who would lose their livelihoods and their jobs. He and the SNP would create a cliff edge in the energy transition and devastate communities across my region.

The north-east economy is well and truly on the line, which is why we need a sensible and pragmatic approach to the energy transition. However, the SNP still has not published a proper energy strategy. It does not have a plan, but it has found the time to release independence paper after independence paper.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. That point has been made: it was not a point of order, as we hear constantly.

If Neil Gray is serious about reform, the SNP Government must step up, stop shirking responsibility and finally show some leadership.

The NHS is an incredible national asset, but as we have heard repeatedly in the debate, it is on its knees.

For 17 years, the SNP Government has been the custodian of Scotland’s healthcare service, but it is out of ideas and out of time. Perhaps that explains SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn’s ludicrous intervention yesterday, which abdicated any responsibility for the state of Scotland’s fully devolved health service. It was shameful grievance-mongering but, sadly, that is something that we have come to expect from the SNP. Professor James Mitchell was spot-on when he said that the latest deflection from the SNP was “evasive” and “simplistic”, with “no serious engagement” with the “challenges” that the NHS faces.

In a new report this week, the Royal College of Nursing has laid bare some of the challenges. It found that more than a third of nurses have delivered care in settings such as hospital corridors, which has alarming implications for patient safety. The situation is so bad that the RCN has described it as a “national emergency”.

Dr Sandesh Gulhane said:

“the SNP has chosen to manipulate Scottish parliamentary time in order to serve its UK general electioneering purposes. That is an affront to every Scot who relies on the NHS and to every healthcare professional who dedicates their life to serving others.”

Wherever we look, whether in primary or secondary care, the situation is critical for Scotland’s NHS. Delayed discharges are up by 12 per cent on last year and there have been almost half a million fewer operations than there were in the pre-pandemic period. Consultant vacancies are up by more than 11 per cent in a year, and nursing vacancies remain stubbornly high.

Across every health board, the number of GP surgeries is down on the number a decade ago. Ambulances are stuck outside A and E departments—especially at Aberdeen royal infirmary in my region—for hours at a time. NHS services are increasingly being centralised to urban areas. Minor injuries units in rural communities are closing or restricting their hours, and some rural health boards cannot even recruit GPs.

What about the one in seven Scots who are languishing on NHS waiting lists for months, or even years, as their conditions deteriorate? What about the national treatment centres, including in NHS Grampian and NHS Tayside in my region, that were promised to relieve the pressures on the system, but have been put on ice? Worst of all, we know that people are dying unnecessarily: in A and E departments alone, there were as many as 2,000 excess deaths in 2023.

For too long, the SNP has presided over a process of managed decline in the NHS. Successive SNP health ministers have overpromised and underperformed. NHS staff and patients are paying the price, with intolerable workforce pressures, inadequate infrastructure and unbearably long waits for people who are in pain and discomfort. SNP members do not want to hear it, but it is they who are responsible for the NHS in Scotland and they who are making spending decisions and determining spending priorities.

The crisis will only get worse with an ageing population and growing demand on a healthcare system that simply does not have the capacity to respond. A national conversation on the future of the NHS is welcome but, ultimately, we need solutions. Today, the cabinet secretary talked about the transformation of services and having a national conversation. He used the word “reform” at least seven times—in fact, it was used so often that I stopped counting. Why have the previous health secretaries and the current cabinet secretary not been listening to key stakeholders such as the RCN, the Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Surgeons? The SNP Government has the feedback that it needs. It is action that is lacking.

Today, Humza Yousaf was here at the start of the debate, but I noticed that it did not take long for him to scarper out of the chamber—[Interruption.] Did SNP members hear that? He scarpered out of the chamber when he heard the current health secretary talk about reform being required.

Carol Mochan talked about the importance of honesty when having a conversation—but how can one have an honest conversation with the SNP Government when it deflects and denies? There was deflection when the cabinet secretary questioned the figure of 840,000 people on NHS waiting lists, which came out last Tuesday from Public Health Scotland.

I am sorry—I will not take an intervention. I have had enough banging on the drum, Presiding Officer.

This should be about fixing and future proofing—[Interruption.]