Seòmar agus comataidhean

This week, we discovered that one in eight people in Scotland are on an NHS waiting list. Earlier in the meeting, I asked the health professionals what data is available on that so that we can understand the knock-on effects. I think that, a few weeks ago, Professor Leitch told me that most of the data on that should be available.

I gave the example of two constituents who needed a hip replacement and were suffering as a result. One of them was able to get together £15,500 and go and get it done privately—they are now sorted—while the other cannot afford that. That is having a knock-on effect on their mental health and so on.

What are we going to do about the waiting lists? Is regional planning being done health board by health board? How will we get the waiting lists down? How will we address the knock-on effects that these unacceptable waiting times are having on people’s health and wellbeing?

That is what I am trying to get at with regard to waiting lists—I am trying to understand what the impact is and how you measure it. On the example that you gave, I know someone who is on the waiting list for a hip replacement and who is in absolute agony, which is having a wider impact on their health. That has been made worse by one of their friends having been able to put together £15,000 to go away and have their hip replaced just like that. What I am trying to find out is how we as politicians and policy makers can understand the impact of one in eight people in Scotland being on an NHS waiting list.

I think that every MSP will be getting a lot of emails about schools and the continued wearing of face masks in schools. I looked at this morning’s newspaper headlines—I see one that says, “Door chop is totally unhinged”—and every one of the newspapers seems to be having a go at yesterday’s announcement. I note that Hugh Pennington said:

“I’m not sure how much science is behind it. I’m sceptical it’s going to make much of a difference. It really is showing that something is being done for its own sake.”

What is the evidence behind it?

Perth and Kinross Council, which is Mr Swinney’s local authority, made clear in The Courier today that it has

“dismissed government proposals to chop the bottom off classroom doors to improve ventilation in schools.”

Where are we with schools? Parents are rightly concerned that kids have lost a lot of education in recent times. There is a view that continuing to wear face coverings in school—when face coverings are not being worn in many other places—is a distraction and gets in the way of education.

We then have all the measures that were announced yesterday, which include cutting off the bottom of classroom doors. Should we not be empowering local authorities to produce detailed reports that show what is happening in schools and where they are at, and then to take the responsible steps that they believe need to be taken at local level, or is the centralised control of 32 education authorities and a whole load of measures the right way to do it?

I am certainly not criticising anybody in the NHS, and I have never criticised the Government for the steps that it has had to take throughout the pandemic—I have certainly supported it. Although you can rake through the data and find a lot of that information for, for example, NHS Fife, it is not clear to me when we are going to get in about tackling that problem or whether we have a plan to tackle it. The private sector is the only option that seems to be available to people who are on long waiting lists for operations such as hip replacements. Therefore, we have a two-tier health system that is operating on the ability to pay. All I ask is that we start to see much more evidence of the Government’s plans to start tackling that.

My daughter is a principal teacher in a high school, and I talk to her constantly about the challenges in schools, so I am well aware of them. However, when the Government comes forward and says, “We’ll put £2.4 million into mechanical fans and £300,000 into undercutting doors,” I have to wonder how you have come up with that solution and how engaged local authorities have been in it. Is there, at local authority level, some report that sets out the challenges in that particular authority?

I go back to Hugh Pennington’s point that there seems to be no real evidence for this and that it is almost a case of being seen to do something. Where is the evidence that, say, spending £300,000 to cut the bottoms off doors in schools is the answer?

I want to move on quickly and ask you about the backlog in the NHS. A number of months ago, I raised with you the rise of the private sector in Scotland, the use of which seems to be increasing. I am dealing with the case of a constituent who went to the private hospital at Murrayfield, paid £200 to see a consultant, was quoted £14,500 for a hip replacement and then, two days before the operation, was told that the cost would be £15,500 instead. She was told to take it or leave it, because there were lots of people looking for hip replacements.

That was the private sector, but what about the people who cannot afford £200 for a consultation or the £15,500 for a hip replacement? Will we, at some point, start to see details of the backlog, health authority by health authority, and specifically where that backlog is? A lot of people out there are in a lot of pain, and they are on waiting lists for hip replacements, cataract removal and so on. You can see why there has been growth in the private sector, but it is fundamentally a result of the NHS failing to meet people’s basic needs. Where are we at with all this? What do the waiting lists and waiting times look like, and how are we going to tackle that, other than by saying to people who can afford it, “You can go to the private sector” and to people who are poor, “You can stay in pain”?

I re-emphasise the point that Murdo Fraser has made. If we have information demonstrating that people who are vaccinated are much better protected and that the people ending up in hospital are those who are not vaccinated, it is important that we share that.

I want to focus on two areas regarding the latest figures on vaccination. First, our advisers have pointed out to us that there is a tendency for the uptake of the booster to rise with age. However, there seems to be a dip in the number of over-80s who have had the booster. One reason for that might be that many of those people are housebound. What do you think of that? What are you going to do about it?

Likewise, the Scottish Parliament information centre tells us that the uptake of the booster is generally good across the country, but it is poorer in the cities. Glasgow is at 52.6 per cent and Edinburgh is at 59 per cent, whereas the islands are up in the 80s and Fife is in the 70s. There seems to be an issue with take-up. Do you acknowledge that? If so, what are you doing about it?

What about the cities? Nobody has picked up on that. As I said, in Glasgow, 52 per cent of people have had their vaccination, and Edinburgh is a bit higher at around 59 per cent. There seems to be a problem in the cities compared to Fife, which is at more than 70 per cent, and the islands, which are at more than 80 per cent. Is there a problem with people not getting the booster in the cities?

I asked about the over-80s.

There is a dip in the over-80s group.