Health
Debate between Angus Robertson and Tom Blenkinsop(10 years, 6 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Angus Robertson (Moray) (SNP)
It is an honour to follow the hon. Member for Burnley (Gordon Birtwistle). The House was listening raptly to a speech full of humanity and compassion. I pay tribute, too, to the right hon. Member for Cynon Valley (Ann Clwyd), who read out a lot of examples of what everyone will agree was shocking treatment. I genuinely hope that Ministers listened closely to those speakers and to many others who have made important points.
In the limited time available, I should like to draw attention to the obvious point that this is the last Queen’s Speech before the historic and exciting independence referendum in Scotland on 18 September. It is worth making the point that this Queen’s Speech and Westminster governance—the choices that the Government have introduced—can and should be seen through that prism. There are 100 days left before people in Scotland are able to determine whether we should become a normal country making all the normal decisions that successful democracies make.
Today, we have been encouraged to speak about health, so I was pleased to find a recent international health watchdog report issued only a few days ago in Canada, which said:
“Imagine a land where a patients’ charter of rights and responsibilities is in place that includes wait-time guarantees; over 90% of patients requiring elective care are treated within 18 weeks from referral by a family physician to start of treatment/procedure including all diagnostic testing and specialist consultations. Over 98% of in-patient procedures and day-surgery cases are treated within 12 weeks of agreement to treat. Over 90% of patients are seen within four hours in the emergency department (i.e., admitted, transferred or discharged). Citizens can access the most appropriate member of their primary care team within 48 hours. Up-to-date statistics and reports on wait times and health system performance indicators are publicly available. In addition to providing timely access, this land has been successful in improving other dimensions of quality of care (e.g., significantly reducing levels of hospital acquired infections, reducing the level of inappropriate care), and performance in all of these dimensions is being tracked through the measurement and reporting of performance targets available for use by patients, providers and system managers alike. Fortunately, this land already exists—Scotland.”
That report was issued only a few days ago by the physicians watchdog in Canada.
I pay tribute, as did the Health Secretary, to the work of health professionals, who make a tremendous difference to people in the NHS system in England and, no doubt, to the NHS system in Wales and Northern Ireland. I pay tribute to all of them, and in particular to those who work in NHS Scotland. I am proud of the difference that the Scottish National party Government have made since taking power in 2007. Staffing has increased under the SNP by more than 6.7%.