Margaret Curran: To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-9558 by Nicola Sturgeon on 19 February 2008, what its schedule is for consulting statutory and voluntary agencies on reviewing the CHD and Stroke Strategy and how it intends to gather experiences of people who have had strokes, particularly those with aphasia who need long-term support to return to independence, education,...
Margaret Curran: To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the strike at the Grangemouth oil refinery, what contingency plans it has in place to ensure the continued operation of emergency services.
Margaret Curran: To ask the Scottish Executive how many individuals over 40 have received a Life Begins health check.
Margaret Curran: To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of individuals have received their Life Begins health check at a (a) GP surgery and (b) health centre.
Margaret Curran: To ask the Scottish Executive when the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing last met representatives of housing associations in Glasgow. (S3O-3180)
Margaret Curran: I will press the cabinet secretary for more detail. Could she could tell me specifically when she last met housing association representatives? She will realise that the Mazars report is the subject of significant discussion in Glasgow, and I am sure that housing associations will want to put to her directly the evidence that they have accumulated. Does she agree with Alex Neil, who said this...
Margaret Curran: Oh—9 minutes. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Jim Tolson made an entertaining speech in which he quoted an answer from Stewart Maxwell. Stewart Maxwell gave another woeful performance today and we look forward to more interesting answers when we interrogate his figures. It is clear to members why we initiated a debate on housing and why—unusually—we went for a longer debate. Members...
Margaret Curran: As members behind me have said, there is no rush, minister. The debate has been good and has allowed us to interrogate in depth significant issues, particularly in relation to GHA, on which we have heard interesting comments. I will say something that I have never said before in the chamber and which I will be shocked to say again: Alex Neil made a useful and interesting speech. I do not...
Margaret Curran: Thank you. Alex Neil's speech was interesting, because we are beginning to see a hint of SNP back benchers pushing the Government a wee bit further and encouraging it to take a more radical stance. I congratulate Alex Neil on that. The GHA issue is important and I associate myself with the comments of Robert Brown and many others on it. It is only fair to put on record our acknowledgement of...
Margaret Curran: It is completely disrespectful to the chamber for Tricia Marwick to walk in here at the end of a debate and intervene. That is against all parliamentary practice. Perhaps if she had been here for the debate she would have understood some of the arguments that have been put forward. The amendments that have been lodged by the Lib Dems and the Tories, as well as the Labour motion, reflect a...
Margaret Curran: Does Dave Thompson acknowledge the 36,000 housing association houses that were built under the previous Administration? Is that nothing?
Margaret Curran: To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are any plans to replace ambulances with one-man rapid response vehicles and, if so, how many ambulances will be replaced and when it anticipates any resulting effect on patient care.
Margaret Curran: To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to improve access to alternative therapies such as homeopathy and facilitate patient choice.
Margaret Curran: To ask the Scottish Executive whether the proposal that NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde will provide £270 million towards the building of the New Southern General Hospital will have an impact on other aspects of the overall budget of the NHS board.
Margaret Curran: I thank the cabinet secretary for the early circulation of her statement and I associate the Labour Party with the thanks to Lord Sutherland for his work. As the Sutherland report recognises, the introduction of free personal care by the previous Executive was groundbreaking and represented a key change to the long-term care of the elderly in Scotland. I hope that the cabinet secretary can...
Margaret Curran: To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the strike at the Grangemouth oil refinery, whether all NHS services have contingency plans in place.
Margaret Curran: To ask the Scottish Executive what the anticipated effect is of the abolition of Communities Scotland on the funding for, and assessment of, local regeneration projects.
Margaret Curran: To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to work in partnership with the voluntary sector to support new ways of delivering services.
Margaret Curran: Will any of the efficiencies that the cabinet secretary referred to in her original answer apply to the Scottish Ambulance Service? The cabinet secretary will be aware of the incident in my constituency in which a young man lay dying while a paramedic who was on the scene was prevented, to her great distress, from taking any action to help him, because she was out as a single-person crew....
Margaret Curran: What proportion of health budget spending goes to the voluntary sector? Does the cabinet secretary project that to grow over the coming period?