Far North MSP calls for “compassionate” investment in Highland Hospice.
Caithness, Sutherland and Ross MSP David Green has today used a debate in the Scottish Parliament to call on the Scottish Government to free up bedspace in hospitals by investing in Highland Hospice.
Speaking in a debate on public service reform, the Liberal Democrat MSP said the NHS is losing £1.2 million a day because on any given night there are 2,000 patients stuck in hospital in Scotland.
Mr Green pointed to the work of Highland Hospice and the End of Life Care Together partnership as a solution. Between May 2023 and September 2024, people who accessed their helpline spent more than 4,100 fewer days in hospital, generating savings equivalent to £3.8 million.
He told MSPs: “With an investment of around £1m a year, Highland Hospice estimate they could deliver Hospice at Home in every area in the Highlands - a compassionate choice that will help reduce delayed discharge, free up hospital capacity, and ensure more people receive the care they want, where they want it.”
As his party’s new spokesperson for public service reform, Mr Green also moved an amendment in the debate and warned the Scottish Government’s reshaping Scotland’s public services must not be “code for ever greater centralisation.”
Following the exchanges, he said: “Just look at the centralisation of the police led to the closure of Inverness Control Room and the loss of staff with detailed knowledge of our communities. Or the one-size-fits-all approach of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has left stations in North West Sutherland, in effect, unavailable for years.
“We are in dire need of a change in approach. Reform of public services will impact each and every community. It must be guided by the principle empowering local communities, not a one-size-fits-all approach. If it doesn’t, history tells us it will be rural Scotland that will feel it most.”
ENDS.
Notes to editors:
The full text of the Scottish Liberal Democrat amendment is as follows:
Public Service Reform: Empowering Staff, Service Users and Local Communities
As an amendment to motion S7M-00309 in the name of Ivan McKee (Public Service Reform: Empowering Staff, Service Users and Local Communities), insert at end "notes concerns that previous reforms undertaken by the Scottish Government have led to the centralisation of public services, including through the creation of Police Scotland, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and the proposed National Care Service; believes that the centralisation of services and the adoption of a one-size-fits-all approach have had a detrimental impact on rural Scotland, and further believes that any future public service reform should be guided by the principle of local decision-making, with communities empowered to shape the services on which they rely."