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This issue is perhaps the one that I hear most about from constituents across South Scotland, and that is why it is essential that it is given fair hearing here today. Whether people live in rural or urban areas, are young or old, have a long-term condition or are seeking new advice, worries about NHS waiting times are a constant. It is described to me as not just waiting but languishing on NHS waiting lists. That is not my description but that of patients and constituents in all our communities. I expect that every one of us here has or knows someone who is waiting and experiencing that.

Put simply, our constituents want to know what can be done to stop our NHS being put under such constant pressure. Although they are sympathetic to the fact that waiting times are a reality of any health service, some of the extended waits that people are having to put up with are simply unheard of. There are 7,000 Scots waiting for more than two years. I was not going to bring this up, but in the cabinet secretary’s contribution he kept referring to other nations. In Scotland there are 7,000 people waiting for more than two years, and in England there are 227. It is not helpful to continue to go over those figures. People want to know what is happening.

In Scotland, it is at the point where it has become commonly accepted that there are certain operations and treatments that people might have to wait years for. In some cases, that wait can shorten lives and cause unmanageable stress.

Is that really what we came to this place to do? As lawmakers and elected representatives of our communities, we have to understand that the people who are telling us this are not just statistics moving from one column to another; they are real people with complex lives who are in constant limbo because they simply do not know when they will receive the treatment that they require.

As we have heard, under the SNP Government, 80,000 people and their loved ones are living with anxiety and, in many cases, pain for more than a year while waiting for planned care, because the Government is not getting it right. Those people view commitments that the Government has made as a personal promise, and time and again, they are seeing that those commitments amount to just words. That is not acceptable, and I implore those who have the power to change the trajectory not to say, “Look over there—it’s someone else’s fault,” or, “We’re not as bad as someone else.” That does not do justice to our constituents.

The Government should look at the NHS’s long-term investment and infrastructure needs in Scotland, be honest about delays on national treatment centres and reset the programme clearly. The cabinet secretary mentioned only a couple of the national treatment centres and did not speak about some of the other projected centres. We need to ensure that our workforce is secure and that we move away from the damaging and expensive reliance on agency workforce. That has been a thing under the SNP Government, and it needs to address the issue. Our job is to hold the Government to account, and I ask it to address that.

I have sympathy for any Government that has to put up with the constant undercutting of public services that is led by the Conservative Government in Westminster, but our job in this place is to deal with what we can do, and the Scottish Government can do things. Therefore, on behalf of my constituents, I say: let us be clear about what can be done. The Government has been in power for 17 years and should deliver its promises on staffing and national treatment centres. The staffing crisis is making commitments such as the one on the national treatment centres impossible to deliver.

We must do what we can. I make a genuine request to the cabinet secretary to feed back appropriately on the issue, so that we can feed that back to our communities and our constituents. Cabinet secretary, let us push forward into the new year with a serious plan and not even more empty promises.

Good morning. My point probably links to things that my colleagues have said. It is about the sustainability of health boards and where we think that Government and the boards are required to work together. Cabinet secretary, you noted that there are five—although my papers said four—health boards that are indicating that they are having financial pressures.

What are the key actions that you are working on together in relation to financial sustainability? What three things are you working on together with the health boards that are on the escalation framework, particularly those that are at stage 3?

Sorry, yes.

Yes. You are right that it would be helpful for organisations to be able to predict whether they are likely to have similar funding or on-going increases in funding.

My last point is about NHS boards. Are the 3 per cent recurring savings considered to be achievable for NHS boards? What conversations have you had with the boards about whether that is realistically sustainable for them?

Okay. I have a couple more points relating to issues that are raised with the committee quite a lot. The first is about the way in which settlements are made and how multi-year is helpful. We hear that a lot from other sectors, and we have heard it in committee meetings. How are you placed to be able to offer that to some boards?

Finally, do boards indicate whether they have reached the point that that is becoming difficult for them? Do they say that they feel that they can continue to work at that 3 per cent level?

It is not that I disagree with that—I was just interested in knowing whether, given that that diverse group is already a whole regulatory body, it made sense for those roles to sit with the HCPC.

I totally agree that regulation is really important. I should declare that I was on the Health and Care Professions Council, although that was about 15 years ago. It regulates a very diverse group of professionals and it is quite used to playing that sort of advanced role. Was there a debate about whether those roles sat neatly on the GMC or the HCPC, given that the HCPC is very skilled in those diverse roles with advanced practices?

I start by paying tribute to all our public sector workforce, in everywhere from the NHS to schools to the fire service. They deserve our praise, but more than that, they deserve a Government that is prepared to meet the promises that it has made and that treats them with respect. The motion does not do that.

I want to speak directly to our communities, who are being let down. I understand that it is they who suffer long waits in our health service, cannot access community facilities and see no future in the education system. It is our communities who suffer as the mess deepens and deepens. We need action, and that action needs to work for our communities and our dedicated workforce.

Before my colleagues on the SNP benches start to jump up and down at me, I want to make this point: I am no friend of the Tories. I believe that the chaos that has been created by Liz Truss and Boris Johnson, on top of the constant Tory attack on working-class people, means that the Tories have undoubtedly contributed to a raid on our public purse.

However, to be clear, our job in this place is not to deflect and not just to blame—it is to deliver on the commitments that have been made and the services that are required. The reality is that, if we do not reflect on our own actions and our own contributions to the problem, we will never seek to find the solution; we will just absolve ourselves of the responsibility.

The reality is that this tired Government, as it enters its 18th year, must be prepared to acknowledge its failures. Currently, it just grasps at straws, such as trying to build a set of “values”—as it describes them—out of the wreckage of Scotland’s public services.

The Government’s motion seems to be about dressing up brutal cuts in the language of reform and values; it is about window dressing rather than substance. If we are absolutely honest, everyone in the chamber knows that, even those who sit on the Government benches. For 17 years, no priority has been given to our public services.

I want to make progress.

If I speak to constituents, they say the same thing. They see a lack of investment in the public sector, particularly in their communities. They see a Government that is not capable of tackling NHS waiting lists or reducing the attainment gap.