Health and Well-being

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 10:21 am on 28 June 2007.

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Photo of Mary Scanlon Mary Scanlon Conservative 10:21, 28 June 2007

I will raise three main issues in this wide-ranging debate. However, I want to start by commending the previous Government on reducing the number of blocked beds which, according to figures that were released just this week, has fallen from about 3,000 to 755. We were very critical of the practice of bedblocking, so it is only right that we commend the actions that were taken to reduce it.

However, we also note that it has taken £30 million a year over three years to provide the community and care places for people who leave hospital. I ask the new Government: is that level of funding, which was highlighted in the Howat report, needed to bring down the bedblocking figures even further or does it indicate the extent of underfunding of the personal care package?

My first point is about the independent sector. In that respect, I must acknowledge Andy Kerr's very innovative initiative at Stracathro hospital. Last week, however, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing stated that the independent sector was in conflict and competition with the NHS and that no NHS money would be put into building it up. In response to that statement, I must highlight the work of the Scottish regional treatment centre at Stracathro, which Jackson Carlaw and I visited on Monday. In this pilot project, the private sector neither conflicts nor competes with, but co-operates with and complements, the NHS. Instead of the NHS putting money into the private sector, the sector puts money into the NHS by utilising theatre capacity after 6 pm and at weekends, when the theatres would be lying empty. The facilities are leased to Netcare, which is being stringently quality audited. In this example, patients benefit through reduced waiting times and top-quality investment is maintained within the NHS at Stracathro and Netcare's facilities. There is no building up of private sector capacity—the sector itself is simply more fully utilising existing NHS resources which, as I have made clear, would otherwise be lying unused. The fact is that the private sector is helping to build up NHS access and treatment.

As a result, I ask the cabinet secretary to ensure that ideology will not stand in the way of improving patient care, greater utilisation of NHS resources or the investment of private sector money in our NHS for the benefit of NHS patients in Scotland.

Now that I have got that off my chest, I will move on to my second topic, which is mental health. I am pleased that mental health is on the agenda of the Government and of the Health and Sport Committee. When preparing for the debate, I was shocked to read that, over the past 40 years, there has been no reduction in the number of people suffering and dying from mental illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia. That contrasts starkly with the huge reduction in the number of deaths from diseases such as stroke, heart disease and cancer over the same period, which has been achieved through prevention and treatment. Late diagnosis and late intervention are still issues.

The Scottish Conservatives are committed to the inclusion of the voluntary sector—and, when appropriate, the independent sector—in the delivery of health care. In that context, I commend the excellent work of Depression Alliance Scotland, which uses self-help groups to enable people to learn useful skills for overcoming stress and anxiety, to build confidence and, importantly, to learn new ways to tackle difficult situations. Groups also cover problem solving, relaxation and how to overcome reduced activity and to change unhelpful thinking. Given that the estimated social and economic cost to Scotland of mental health problems is £8.6 million, surely there needs to be even more focus on ensuring that there is more funding for, and greater recognition of and access to, groups such as Depression Alliance.

My third topic is alcohol. I appreciate that it is on the Government's agenda and that its importance was acknowledged by Andy Kerr. The recent figures on alcohol-related liver disease are quite shocking. A death due to alcohol takes place in Scotland every four hours and the rate of alcohol-related death in Scotland is double that of the United Kingdom as a whole. There are 100,000 children in Scotland who live with a parent who has a drinking problem—we cannot lose sight of that. Furthermore, drinking by 13-year-olds has doubled in the last decade. The cost to Scotland, from the point of view not only of health and social care, but of the economy and families, is almost immeasurable.

I look forward to an extensive debate on the issues that I have raised and many others. I appreciate that we differ from the Government on the independent sector, but I hope that the cabinet secretary will visit Stracathro and keep an open mind about what is happening there. We are supportive of measures such as early intervention and the provision of high-quality support and treatment, and we look forward to working with the Government on the alcohol strategy.