Duncan McNeil: I could go on. There is a difference between the good intentions of Government and what we must do. Let us not allow things to continue to drift. We need to address the issue now—it cannot wait for an independence referendum.
Duncan McNeil: I agree with Malcolm Chisholm, who said that he was puzzled by the nature of the debate. We had a flat performance from the cabinet secretary in his opening speech, confirming the embarrassing situation that he finds himself in, in being forced publicly to deny the views that he has argued in private. Whatever has happened to this modernising cabinet secretary? In the heady days of the...
Duncan McNeil: the cabinet secretary may puff himself up like a peacock in the chamber, but we know that he is the chicken in the Cabinet who is not prepared to fight for what is right. In hard times, we as politicians have a bigger responsibility to get this right. That is the cause—it is serious stuff. It is our cause, because there is a price being paid by people across the country because of his...
Duncan McNeil: We all know—this is why we need a debate on universality—that universal healthcare does not cure the inequality between rich and poor. The fundamental issue is that universality in itself does not cure those ills. It is dishonest to say that universality cures all. Universality is not a bad thing, but we are arguing that deciding how to cut spending and who should take more of the strain...
Duncan McNeil: Will the cabinet secretary give way?
Duncan McNeil: 8. To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Justice last met with cashback partners and what was discussed. (S4O-01982)
Duncan McNeil: I refer the cabinet secretary to the recently published cashback for communities programme, which acknowledged that, disappointingly, we do not know the extent of the impact of the programme on young people. Given that the cashback programme has been running for six years and that £30 million has been claimed by the partners, is it not scandalous that we do not know how it has helped to...
Duncan McNeil: You rightly say that the objective of the reform is to widen access to education for people in deprived areas, for example, and vulnerable people with learning difficulties. A thousand learners are in James Watt College for precisely that reason. How will we ensure that the bill will ensure the best outcomes for people with learning disabilities? How will it ensure that they are not pushed...
Duncan McNeil: The good news is that we are living longer; the bad news is that old age does not come alone and those extra years are not always healthy ones. Men and women can commonly expect to spend, respectively, about seven and nine years in poor health. Scotland’s national dementia strategy tells us that approximately 71,000 people in Scotland have dementia and that the figure is likely to double in...
Duncan McNeil: Mark McDonald promised that the extra time that he was given would be worth it. When will the member stop reading out the minutes of Aberdeen City Council and get to the good part of his speech?
Duncan McNeil: Will the member take an intervention?
Duncan McNeil: Will the consultation be completed and the national care standards put in place in order to inform those who set the outcomes? That seems a natural process.
Duncan McNeil: I thank the minister for his statement. We should not forget that yesterday was a sad and disappointing day, which will not be forgiven lightly, as Jim Murphy said. In his statement, the minister moved on quickly to describe the benefits of independence. There was a wee debate about different budgets. Will he say what the start-up costs would be for the Scottish armed forces? How much does a...
Duncan McNeil: 6. To ask the Scottish Government what action the Cabinet Secretary for Justice will take to reduce delays in post-mortems in the west of Scotland. (S4O-01854)
Duncan McNeil: I thank the cabinet secretary for that response, although the information that I have is clearly different from the information that his officials have provided to him. I am sure that the cabinet secretary appreciates the traumatic experience of a sudden death in any family. The information that I have is that the average wait for a post-mortem in the Southern general hospital is 10 days. It...
Duncan McNeil: Mr Green confirmed the details that I have outlined this morning, which contradict the cabinet secretary. There was a 10-day wait, according to Mr Green. However, the point is that there are two cabinet secretaries involved in this matter—the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing. Since I spoke to Mr Green, I have asked the Cabinet Secretary for...
Duncan McNeil: I am sure that we will hear a lot in the debate about the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, the Scottish Medicines Consortium, individual patient treatment requests, quality-adjusted life years—QALY—costs, modifiers, area drug and therapeutic committees, value-based pricing, new duties and so on. If anybody is confused after hearing that list, they will know why we...
Duncan McNeil: The member will speak in the debate. I hope that I will be given additional time.
Duncan McNeil: I accept that the premise of Ms McAlpine’s article was that politicians should not be involved in the process at all. However, we set the parameters and we provide the money, so we have a legitimate role in the process, which I have described. We have debated the issue, but we have delayed and dragged our feet in dealing with a process that is acknowledged to be failing people.
Duncan McNeil: That is why the cabinet secretary instigated a review of the process. It matters that we lost precious time. That time was not as precious for us as it was for Anne Fisher, whose access to a particular medicine has been determined through procedures that are being reviewed and which the Parliament has found to be not fit for purpose. It is time that we reviewed Anne Fisher’s case.
