Seòmar agus comataidhean

I thank Evelyn Tweed for bringing this interesting debate to the chamber. I am not putting myself forward as an expert in tonight’s debate and I have tried really hard to listen to all contributions by the members and will endeavour to go back and speak to the Labour group because this seems to be an important issue and we need to push to get it right for people. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in the debate on behalf of Scottish Labour, and to make that commitment.

Like many members, I represent a rural region, South Scotland, which has so much beautiful woodland and outdoor space so, even before tonight’s debate, I recognised the issues around ticks and the associated bacterial infection of Lyme disease. We know that the symptoms might not be easily recognised and diagnosed, which means that they can be missed, as Evelyn Tweed said, so I hope that highlighting the issue will ensure that there is better awareness among the population thus reducing the risk of infection. Raising awareness will also help to support NHS staff and the healthcare workforce to recognise the signs and symptoms, which will result in appropriate diagnosis of the condition.

As we have heard, Lyme disease is a bacterial infection that is spread to humans by infected ticks. Many of us who have dogs who enjoy long woodland walks recognise ticks as tiny spider-like creatures that are found in woodland and heath, although they can be found in any area of deep or overgrown vegetation where animals feed. Although reported to be more prevalent in the Highlands of Scotland, we are not just talking about rural areas: woodlands and dense vegetation in urban parks see plenty of wildlife, including the spider-like tick. Members have brought out very well that we are now seeing them in other areas where humans walk.

Ticks feed on the blood of birds and mammals, including humans, and that is, of course, where the problem lies. Ticks bite and those bites could infect us with Lyme disease. A tick bite can only cause Lyme disease in humans if the tick has already bitten an infected animal. Some of the research that I looked at talked about the different ways in which farmers manage their animals nowadays.

Members have mentioned the important information that is needed to recognise the signs and symptoms of tick bites and when people should seek medical advice. I appreciate that there are other matters that I did not go over when researching my speech, around the management of farmlands and the beautiful countryside around us, that are also relevant.

A couple of things struck me as being important to raise with the public and the minister, the first of which is that ticks will bite and feed on people’s dogs and cats, which is relevant in urban areas. They can be on the dog or cat for a few days before dropping off and they can pass diseases, including Lyme disease, on to the pet. During my research for tonight’s debate, I noticed information about the signs and symptoms in dogs and cats, and I believe that the pet-loving Scottish public would wish to know some of them, especially as they are also relevant in the prevention of tick transfer to humans.

My second point is about workplace safety, which Rachael Hamilton raised. Scottish Woodlands has Lyme Disease UK as its charity this year because it is aware that its staff could be affected by Lyme disease and it is keen to see further research into Lyme disease.

In the interests of time, I will move on. In my speech, I had planned to talk about some things that other members have talked about—the sensible things that people can do—but it is really important that the minister feeds back to us on the fact that we need to raise public awareness of the reasonable and easy things that people can do and how we manage the issue in the countryside. I thank the Presiding Officer and all the members who spoke tonight.

Despite the harrowing stories from today’s debate, I am pleased to be closing it on behalf of Scottish Labour. Why? Because the Government needs to be held to account. Given the minister’s contribution, it is absolutely right that we in Labour focus in our time to lead debates in the chamber on the crisis in mental health that is impacting so many across our country and putting significant pressure on NHS and community services.

The minister is new to post and “confident”, and I hope that she delivers. However, after reading the SNP amendment and listening to the minister’s contributions, people could be forgiven for thinking that all was well with the provision of mental health services in Scotland, but there has been a failure by the Government, and we need to be honest about that. I ask back-bench SNP members to be honest, because part of their role is to hold their front-bench colleagues to account. Yet again, the SNP pats itself on the back, blames every factor other than the obvious one—its governance—and still refuses to see the urgent need for systemic change in this area.

Across the chamber, we all agree that nothing is more important than the wellbeing of our population. That includes their physical, economic and social wellbeing; critically, it also includes their mental wellbeing. As we have heard in the debate, and as is set out in Labour’s motion, there are almost 30,000 children, young people and adults on waiting lists. Adults from our most deprived areas are more likely to experience anxiety and depression and, tragically, are more likely to die from suicide.

Despite all that, the key commitment to hire 1,000 mental health specialists to help to improve community mental health services has not even started to be delivered. That is not representative of a Government that prioritises mental health treatment. It is representative of a Government whose inability to address staff shortages undermines efforts to improve care—a Government that is no stranger to a strategy but which has a poor relationship with delivery.

As my colleague Jackie Baillie mentioned, and as our motion says, the number of mental health-related calls to NHS 24 was almost seven times higher in 2022 than it was in 2019. We all accept that the pandemic had a significant role to play in that, but it would be disingenuous to suggest that that is when the problem started. The challenges that we face today with the delivery of mental health services in Scotland are a result of long-term inaction by the Scottish Government. Our communities, our mental health workforce and our patients deserve so much more.

We must all echo the call of my colleague Jackie Baillie for at least 11 per cent of the overall NHS budget to be directed towards mental health services. I urge the Government to look at that again. I also ask the minister to address the question that my colleague asked about the research and analysis by the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Proportionately, Scotland’s mental health budget is less now than it was a decade ago. Will the SNP Government address that?

We must also look at how the budget can be targeted and our investment focused on community-based services. As well as having a focus on early intervention and CAMHS for our young people, we need to address the root cause of the loneliness and isolation that members of our elderly population experience. Such targeted spending must be underpinned by a willingness to support people in our most deprived areas to tackle the prominent and divisive health inequalities that exist in Scotland.

Our call for the provision of a dedicated mental health worker in every GP practice and a mental health A and E department in every health board so that patients can be fast-tracked should not be seen as controversial. The minister should get behind some of the suggestions that have been made.

The crisis in mental health treatment in Scotland is concerning and damaging. Time and again, it is our most vulnerable who are let down by the Scottish Government. It knows—as, I am sure, do SNP back benchers—that its performance in this area has been unacceptable. We must be honest and look to shift in the right direction. More warm words and self-congratulatory comments will not cut it. The mental health crisis demands action, and if the SNP will not deliver, it should step aside, because someone has to.

I suppose that people will want to hear about very practical things. Will there be any extra clinic times? Will there be extra resources? Will there be more nurses to give out that kind of advice? You might not be able to give answers to those questions now, but it would be helpful for the committee to know those things for the women.

That would be helpful.

I want to be clear on some of the points that you have made, minister. From parliamentary questions on outpatient appointments, we know that the median waiting time between referral and appointment at the complex mesh surgical service in Glasgow is 236 days and that the longest waiting time is 448 days. I just want clarity on exactly how you have been approaching that issue with the health board. Those waiting times are absolutely unacceptable, and, as members have indicated, this is about a longstanding commitment to women. What discussion have you had with the health board about that? What reassurances do you have for those women that we will get appointment times closer to referral times?

I am interested in the link with GPs, which is so important because GPs are maybe the first port of call. Women have found the matter quite difficult, for two reasons. First, we know that GPs are under enormous stress, so I am interested to know what is out there to help GPs around transvaginal mesh issues.

Secondly, an important point about medical records was raised in our previous evidence session: why are GPs unable to easily ascertain whether women have had mesh implanted? Do we have an understanding of how we might resolve that issue? Some of the women have reported that they went to their GP with the symptom and that either the GP was unaware of it or the diagnosis was delayed. Do GPs get good information about the symptoms so that women can get a diagnosis and a referral?

We have heard about the need to learn lessons and the need to have easy-to-access registry systems for other devices, such as hernia mesh. Has the Government considered that as a way of giving GPs easy access to information? Other people have raised that issue with us in the past.

Before I begin, I put on record my party’s gratitude to everyone who played any role at all in the long and on-going fight against Covid and, in particular, those front-line health and care workers who risked their lives and the welfare of their families to keep as many of us as safe as possible.

That, of course, includes those who worked for unending hours to push through the vaccination programme that has successfully brought us to a point where we can proudly say that we can begin to see an end to lives being lost from that terrible disease. Those vaccinators and everyone involved in the significant effort that went along with it really are modern-day heroes and we owe it to them to say so as much as we can.

I hope that, in time, Scotland will properly commemorate the thousands of people who risked so much to help us, taking into account the fact that many of them still work in our NHS and social care sector and that they currently feel that they are underpaid and undervalued by Governments. Let us show true gratitude and address that disparity, too, during this session of Parliament.

Let me return to the wider fight against Covid-19. No one can doubt that Governments across the world were wholly unprepared for a pandemic as far reaching and lethal as Covid-19, but it is our responsibility to learn from it to best prepare ourselves for the pandemics to come, as well as to properly manage the continuing damage and potential threat from new Covid strains and long Covid.

That preparation demands that we are honest about the failures that happened. Many people could not get a vaccination appointment anywhere near where they lived, and we have heard of children being given the wrong dosage altogether. Of course, the public expect that in such an unprecedented event, there will be errors, but it is clear that many of those things were avoidable with better planning. It is important that the Government reflects on those matters. I am glad that, since that time, there seems to have been an effort to rectify some of the issues and look at some of the problems.

Despite that, we are currently seeing a concerning number of over-75s failing to get their spring booster jab and a general lack of understanding among the population about where the vaccination programme will go next. Indeed, throughout the vaccination process, there were particular groups that had a much lower uptake of the vaccine than others. Properly understanding the economic, social and cultural reasons behind that is key to ensuring that we get it right immediately in the future. However, I must press the point that, in order to address the issues for good, they have to be recognised as failings first, not swept under the carpet. We need to be honest about what happened and what is happening.

I thank my colleague for that intervention. That is absolutely part of the point that I am making. We must not sweep things under the carpet and we must be honest.

Perhaps larger than all of that, however, is the continuing failure to properly address the situation faced by those who are suffering from long Covid. We believe that there are as many as 172,000 people across Scotland suffering from that debilitating condition, with a significant number unable to work because of it. Many of those people continue to report that they are victims of a postcode lottery for treatment and medication—a completely unacceptable situation for anyone in a country as wealthy as ours. We also know that this Government has not matched the support that has been provided in England and Wales to those who are suffering from the condition—a fact that I find incredible and one that should be more widely known and spoken about.

To avoid errors like that, we must properly process and understand the findings of the Covid inquiry when they arrive, not cower away. When necessary action requires to be taken, we must address it. We must prepare for a future in which a pandemic could plausibly happen again. In order to do that, my party is calling on the Scottish Government to meet people who are suffering from long Covid and experts in the field to discuss the long-term funding that is needed to treat the condition and to ensure that the most vulnerable people in society can access antiviral medications and prophylaxis.

In the long term, our Government must work cohesively with scientists, researchers, stakeholders and Governments across the world to utilise the most up-to-date and cutting-edge discoveries in immunology, epidemiology and wider healthcare. Scotland should be at the forefront of that charge. With its world-leading academic institutions and pharmaceutical research, it can play that role decisively. We should not shy away from celebrating the success of industry and workers across the UK and in Scotland when doing so. After all, investment is key to all of this.

As we know, co-operation across the United Kingdom was exemplary during the pandemic. It acted as a fine testament to what can be achieved when Governments work together sensibly and in the best interests of the many. For many people across Scotland, there was a great sense of solidarity and collective fortitude as the pandemic rolled out from knowing that families in Aberdeen and Southampton alike were going through such an awful situation and, sadly, having first-hand experience of losing loved ones, while fighting it together on a shared footing. I know that that gave me strength during the pandemic and, if it ever happens again, I feel confident that, as the United Kingdom, we are ready to tackle it once more while thinking of others across the nation.

In conclusion, the development and the delivery of vaccines were the jewels in the crown of Scotland’s efforts to fight Covid. We can only be thankful that so many hard-working and committed individuals took up the fight without fear and got the job done. I dread to think where we would have been without them.

I move amendment S6M-08948.1, to insert at end:

“; recognises the importance of the cooperation and pooling of resources by the four nations in the procurement and roll-out of vaccines; accepts that lessons must be learned from the COVID-19 vaccination programme, with concerning evidence of lower vaccine uptake in minority ethnic groups, those living in the most deprived areas, younger people and pregnant women; considers that the Scottish Government’s support for those with long COVID and those formerly on the Highest Risk List is inadequate, and calls on the Scottish Government to meet with people with long COVID and experts to discuss the long-term funding needed to treat this condition, and ensure that the most vulnerable in society can access antiviral medicines and prophylaxis.”

It is concerning that we have another hospital with serious health and safety issues. An inquiry is currently investigating the construction of Scottish hospitals including the Scottish Government’s flagship hospital, the Queen Elizabeth university hospital.

Patients and staff will rightly be outraged by the latest development in NHS Grampian. What discussions, if any, have been had with trade union colleagues to ensure that the workforce has confidence in the safety of the hospital that it will be expected to work in?