4. To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with NHS Lothian, and local groups, since March 2023 regarding the reopening of the Edington hospital in North Berwick. (S6O-02207)

My officials engage regularly with NHS Lothian and with East Lothian health and social care partnership on a range of issues, and they last discussed Edington hospital in March 2023. The health and social care partnership has recently provided the Scottish Government with an update on its on-going review of community provision, which includes Edington hospital, and we have been informed that a 12-week public consultation on proposed changes is due to take place.

As the cabinet secretary will be aware, the story around Edington hospital’s closure goes back to 2021 but, as the First Minister has confirmed, the responsibility for continued Covid recovery now passes to all elements of Government rather than being centred in one place.

Can the cabinet secretary confirm that he will be able to attend the meeting on 22 May—which has been arranged by Paul McLennan, as the constituency MSP—with local groups, including North Berwick community council and Friends of the Edington Hospital?

I am aware that the health and social care partnership board is taking forward a consultation exercise to look at the existing provision that it has in place. I am not aware at this stage of the particular meeting to which Martin Whitfield referred, but it is clearly important that a consultation exercise is being taken forward in order to consult with the local community, hear what its views are, and take those views into account in determining the final outcome of any process. That is what I would expect to happen in this case.

By the sound of it, there will be no meeting. That is consistent, because ministers have repeatedly failed to meet local stakeholders following the closure of residential care beds at the Edington and the withdrawal of minor injuries services.

With access to community treatment and care services restricted in some surgeries, vulnerable older people and young families face long and impractical bus journeys to East Lothian community hospital in Haddington, or all the way into Edinburgh, in order to access simple national health service services, such as having their wounds dressed. Does that not prove that the Scottish National Party has all but failed and has given up on community-based health services in East Lothian and across the south of Scotland?

That is wrong, especially considering the facility that we have built at East Lothian community hospital, which provides a range of services to the local community.

That aside, Craig Hoy is well aware that the health and social care partnership and the health board are responsible for designing and developing services to reflect the needs of the local community. They have set out their intention to take forward a consultation exercise that will involve the opportunity for people, including elected members such as Craig Hoy, to participate in that process and submit their views to the health and social care partnership and the health board. That will then determine the future approach to delivery of those services locally. The best way to deliver services is through local processes and local consultation, to allow the local community to have its views on what should be provided locally.