I thank colleagues who signed my motion to enable the debate to take place. In particular, I thank those who have stuck around at the end of a very long day in order to participate. I very much look forward to hearing what they and the Minister for Public Health, Sport and Wellbeing have to say.

One of the key lessons of the current pandemic is that life is fragile. Good health cannot be taken for granted. At a time of crisis, particularly when circumstances are generally more challenging, there is comfort from knowing that help, if we need it, is only a phone call away. We are fortunate in being able to rely on a committed and skilled healthcare workforce that is trained to deal with most eventualities and is ready to pick up the pieces of whatever life throws at us.

Nobody starts their day thinking that they will need a paramedic, but many finish the day very glad that they were there. Paramedics are the front line of the front line: they are everybody’s safety net. It is right, therefore, that we expect paramedics to undergo extensive, rigorous and meticulous training—not just in the classroom, but at the coalface, hands on and under supervision.

I therefore support the move to require student paramedics to complete a BSc in paramedic science. It makes sense. It provides confidence to the public, but it also offers reassurance to those who are looking to embark on such a career that they will be well prepared. Five universities in Scotland now offer that relatively new qualification, while traditional in-house training is being phased out.

When the country went into lockdown, earlier this year, students on those courses stepped up to the plate, putting themselves at risk in the face of a virus that was both highly infectious and potentially fatal. In return, however, student paramedics have not been treated fairly by the Scottish Government. While the demands on them have increased substantially, the support that is available remains woefully inadequate.

Earlier this year, my constituent Megan Nicholson wrote to me, explaining that her course is 50 per cent placement work—“the same hours as a fully qualified paramedic”. That work is unpaid and amounts to around 2,500 hours. However, as Megan points out, the course follows shift placements that are constantly chopping and changing and that can run well into the summer, making it difficult—if not impossible—to pick up paid part-time employment at the same time.

Student nurses and midwives are in much the same boat. In recognition of their situation, however, they now receive a national health service bursary of up to £10,000 a year to help them with their living costs. That is right, and it ensures that cost—or, at least, the prospect of racking up significant debt—does not act as a barrier to those who are looking to train as a nurse or a midwife.

By contrast, student paramedics are expected to support themselves with just the standard Student Awards Agency Scotland loan. The more limited financial support that is available is also repayable, unlike the NHS bursary. Even in the short term, the loan payments can leave student paramedics with as little as £25 a week to survive on, once their rent has been paid.

None of that is news to the Government. Ministers are well aware of the problem and the risks that it creates to future staffing levels on the front line of our national health service. So far, though, sympathy and a review are all that have been offered. However, warm words and expressions of appreciation from ministers—including the First Minister, with whom I raised the issue back in August—do nothing to alleviate the plight that is currently faced by so many paramedics.

Not for nothing was the report that was published by the campaign group Pay Student Paramedics entitled “Student Paramedics on the Poverty Line”. The key finding of that survey was that many student paramedics are living below the poverty line, with some actually “destitute”. That conclusion alone should have shamed the Government into action. When coupled with the evidence, which is highlighted in the same survey, that many students are working in excess of what is allowed under the working time regulations, ministers really have no excuse.

The campaign concludes that some students are having to rely on food banks to feed themselves. If that were the result of actions—or inaction—by the United Kingdom Government, Scottish National Party ministers would be expressing outrage. The mix of indignation and condemnation would have some colleagues reaching for the defibrillator. Yet the report’s findings are the result of the SNP Government’s inaction. Those dire conditions have arisen on the SNP Government’s watch, and the power to put things right rests with the SNP Government.

By condemning aspiring NHS staff to the breadline, the Scottish ministers are jeopardising the future of the paramedic workforce, which is already creaking under the strain. In 2019, the Scottish Government put paramedics on its shortage occupation list, and we know, from official figures that were published in January, that the Scottish Ambulance Service failed to cover 43,000 shifts. Last year, a UNISON report revealed that the workload had increased across the board, with 83 per cent of staff saying that their workload was “much heavier”. Sickness absence across the service rose by 40 per cent in 2018 and is currently the third-highest across the respective health boards.

In that context, the Scottish Government’s failure to properly support those who are looking to pursue a career as a paramedic not only is inexplicable but borders on negligent.

I see that at a local level, in Orkney. Currently, the entire Orkney mainland and linked isles are covered by a single land ambulance, save possibly for a few hours on Friday and Saturday evenings. That is simply inadequate. Not only does it put strain on existing ambulance staff, who do their best to provide the cover that their community needs, often by agreeing to be called out when they are not on shift; it also places an unfair and potentially unsafe burden on out-of-hours general practitioners. I know that NHS Orkney has real concerns about the number of times that GPs have been called to attend incidents, including some for which they are not adequately trained. That cannot be allowed to continue.

Despite the willingness of Scottish Ambulance Service and NHS Orkney staff to go above and beyond, the minister acknowledged to me in a recent parliamentary answer that, in the 12 months leading to December 2019, there had been 168 occasions on which emergency calls in Orkney were left waiting due to the ambulance responding to another call. There was also an occasion when Orkney was, in effect, left without any ambulance cover for two hours. That is clearly unacceptable and unsustainable.

I would expect the demand and capacity review that is currently under way to expose that shortfall. It will then be for ministers to respond positively and with the required urgency to ensure that Orkney gets the additional capacity that it so obviously needs.

However, the whole situation is made no easier by the failure to properly support the pipeline of new recruits into the service. That is why the pay student paramedics campaign is so timely, and I thank the people involved for their efforts to shine a light on the issue. It is also why it is so important that ministers now listen and act, and I look forward to hearing confirmation from Mr FitzPatrick that that is what he intends to do.