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FMQs Roundup Thursday January 30 2025 #NHS
The Scotsman
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30/01/2025
Dale and Alistair discuss the goings on at Thursday's First Minister's Questions
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News
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00:00
Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Politics Show for this Thursday. We're here to unwrap
00:06
and unpick First Minister's questions for another week. Always eventful, Russell Findlay
00:13
with the first question. Alistair, what was the target on John Swinney's back today?
00:20
There's a huge focus on health today from both the Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay
00:24
and the Scottish Labour leader Anna Sarwar. People watching this probably know that John
00:28
Swinney on Monday unveiled the latest Scottish Government plan to address the problems in
00:34
the NHS, to renew and strengthen the NHS. There's a lot of different aspects to this.
00:39
Some of it was about improving capacity, some of it was about putting more money into GP
00:43
services. Very much an acceptance that there are existing waiting times problems that have
00:50
been there for a long time in the NHS and the Scottish Government is trying to address
00:54
some of these. With a background, it should be said, of increasing fatigue, I think,
00:59
within NHS staff. And you saw that from some of the reaction after John Swinney's speech
01:04
about this on Monday with some of the kind of major trade unions, Unison, which I think
01:10
represents hundreds of thousands of staff within the NHS, basically saying this was
01:14
the same old, same old. We've heard a lot of this before. A lot of focus as well on
01:18
an announcement by John Swinney around this creation of an app, what he called a kind
01:23
of digital front door to the NHS. But lots of people pointing out that talk of an NHS
01:29
app that people could have on their phones, and it would be this so-called digital front
01:32
door, has been around for a while. I think more than two years we've been talking about
01:37
this. So there's lots of questions about why it's taken so long to do anything about this,
01:42
and people pointing out as well that the NHS in England already has an existing app. But
01:48
today, very much a focus on this. As I say, both Russell Finlay and Anna Sarwar going
01:52
in on First Minister's questions, John Swinney very much defending the records of the government,
01:57
defending the plans that they've announced, pointing to some of the measures they're putting
02:00
in place. Anna Sarwar sort of saying that this is all kind of rhetoric, you know, we've
02:06
not had enough action here. So I think it's a difficult issue for the Scottish Government.
02:13
Health comes up a lot in First Minister's questions, particularly from the Scottish
02:16
Labour Party, and I think one of the key reasons for that is that they think if we go into
02:20
that election next year, the 2026 Horrid Election, and it's about the stewardship
02:25
of public services in Scotland, if they can make it about things like the health service,
02:29
then the SNP are in an extremely tricky situation. We saw from, for example, the Scottish Social
02:35
Attitude Survey last year, that public confidence in the NHS has plummeted in recent years.
02:40
People are really not happy with the state of public services. And John Swinney is very
02:44
conscious of that as well. I mean, Monday was partly about this. And it was interesting
02:48
that John Swinney himself did the main speech and not his health secretary, Neil Gray.
02:53
He's very much come in, he's trying to take control of this situation. He's trying to
02:57
show the Scottish public that the Scottish Government knows that there's problems within
03:01
the NHS. They're doing something about it. And I think the key question will be whether
03:05
any of this makes any difference, whether people on the street actually see a difference
03:11
within the health service, because everyone accepts that we need to see change.
03:16
Alistair, you wrote earlier in the week as well about another part of that plan, which
03:20
was identifying staff to be at the entry to A&E, to divert elderly patients that maybe
03:27
weren't best treated there, to try and help waiting lists and delays, etc. It was also
03:32
an accusation that that was just a reheated policy. Whether it's reheated or not, it clearly
03:38
comes down to delivery or not getting those waiting times down.
03:44
It's all about delivery. And I mean, the harsh truth is that there isn't really a gimmick
03:48
you can come up with that's going to solve the problems within the NHS. They are deep-rooted
03:52
problems with the entire health system. A lot of it's to do with changes in demographics,
03:57
you know, population issues, some of it's to do with funding, some of it's just to do
04:02
with what we expect the NHS to do. There's an argument that maybe we expect it to do
04:06
too much, but there are deep-rooted issues here. And I think there's a lot of frustration,
04:11
as I say, among NHS staff themselves about being treated as kind of political pawns.
04:16
And they see that, you know, new plans are announced, but the difference to them on the
04:20
ground is sometimes, maybe some of them would argue, quite minimal. And I think it's probably
04:24
worth touching on as well. We saw, I think it was last week, perhaps the week before,
04:29
that report that came out from the Royal College of Nursing about the corridor care crisis
04:34
in the NHS. This is where patients are literally treated sometimes within corridor environments
04:40
because there just isn't enough space in hospitals to treat people. And some of the testimony
04:45
that came out of that was, you know, completely eye-opening. It was really, really shocking
04:50
some of the stories that nurses were telling in that report. So it's just such a deep-rooted
04:55
issue and there's not a silver bullet. I mean, that's something that politicians are very
04:59
fond of saying, but it's very true in this case. There isn't a silver bullet, but there
05:03
are things they can do. And I think it's going to be, as I say, one of the key defining issues
05:09
of the coming months for the SNP government, if they can show that they are making a difference
05:14
on the ground. I think they already have a target in place, actually, it's been spoken
05:18
about, about waiting times, people not waiting any longer than 12 months by the end of this
05:24
year or the beginning of next year. I think they will be held to account in this.
05:28
Alistair, just one final quick question before we wrap up. It was a big story this morning,
05:33
an announcement of a court decision that effectively the assessments around
05:41
Rosebank and Jackdaw, the North Sea fields, had been scrapped. Effectively, the two companies
05:48
involved were allowed to continue with scoping work, but they will have to reapply for approval
05:53
for drilling on those sites. It was applauded by environmental groups as an historic win
05:58
and a turning point, but the companies involved as well said that they were pleased that they
06:02
would still be able to continue some work while they reapply for assessment. Did that come up
06:08
at all at FMQs? Clearly, the future of the North Sea is an important issue.
06:15
It certainly came up after FMQs. Myself, along with other journalists, we doorstepped John
06:20
Sweaty, the First Minister, about this. Obviously, the Scottish government's position on oil and gas
06:25
has sort of shifted in recent years. Nicola Sturgeon is very against new oil and gas
06:29
developments. The position has become a little bit more vague since then. John Sweaty is saying
06:34
that they'll have to reflect on this court judgment, but it's always been the Scottish
06:38
government's position that you have to take these climate compatibility tests seriously,
06:42
that the climate issue has to be taken seriously. I think there's huge questions here. I think,
06:48
to be honest, the person who this will be most difficult for is Keir Starmer, because he's the
06:52
one who's going to ultimately have to make a decision here, potentially, if a new application
06:59
is made to drill in these oil fields, gas fields. He's the one that's a UK government
07:04
decision. It's not a devolved issue. So, very difficult for him, given the UK Labour government
07:10
has been extremely cool on new drilling in the North Sea. But, ultimately, it's going to be him
07:15
that this is going to come down to. So, I think, yeah, what he does next will be very interesting.
07:22
Alistair, thanks for bringing us and all the viewers at home up to speed on what's been
07:28
happening there at the Scottish Parliament today. You can read all the latest political
07:32
news, including the details from that court decision at Scotsman.com throughout the rest
07:37
of today. And please pick up a copy of the Scotsman tomorrow for your full wrap of political events.
07:42
Thanks to you, Alistair, and thanks everyone for joining us.
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8:29
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