– in the Scottish Parliament at on 18 January 2018.
4. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress towards the expansion of Scottish Ambulance Service provision in Moray. (S5O-01667)
The Scottish Ambulance Service has been working in partnership with NHS Grampian to put additional ambulance resources in place in Moray. Discussions are on-going to look at what ambulance resources are required in Moray in the medium to long term and a business case is anticipated to be ready by the end of this month, which will be jointly reviewed by both organisations.
I thank the cabinet secretary for her answer and I am sure that she will want to join me in paying tribute to the Scottish Ambulance Service for the role that it has played in dealing with the winter pressures on the national health service over the past few weeks.
As the cabinet secretary will know from her recent meeting with ambulance workers in Elgin, for which they were very grateful, the service has had to cope with its own pressures in Moray over the past few years. As the cabinet secretary said, there has been some recognition of that with additional resources. However, outstanding issues remain in terms of having an additional, new emergency ambulance based in Elgin and with the on-call situation in Dufftown to be addressed as well. I would be grateful if the cabinet secretary could keep a close eye on that and put pressure on the Scottish Ambulance Service to expedite those long-standing decisions.
First, along with Richard Lochhead, I pay tribute to the Scottish Ambulance Service. The service has done an amazing job over the past few weeks in particular in dealing with winter pressures. I had a very productive meeting with many of the front-line staff in Elgin and I pay tribute to Richard Lochhead for raising the issues concerned on a consistent basis. As he will be aware, a number of initiatives are under way to help to address those issues. I will be keeping a very close eye on them and would be very happy to keep Richard Lochhead informed of those developments as they go forward.