FMQs: Recap as Humza Yousaf faces the Scottish Parliament for First Minister's Questions
Make sure you don’t miss a thing by following along here for expert analysis of another First Minister’s Questions with The Scotsman politics team, live from the Scottish Parliament.
FMQs: Follow along live
Key Events
- Conservatives blast Humza Yousaf after the South Uist ferry was cancelled for almost a whole month
- Labour hit out at claims bereaved widow was spied on by health board
- Humza Yousaf faces more challenges on NHS staffing
Moving on to Anas Sarwar from Scottish Labour. He is asking questions about claims NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde spied on Louise Slorance following the death of her partner Andrew Slorance. Catch up on the story here. Louise Slorance is in the public gallery to watch this.
NHS admits to using taxpayers' money to SPY on dead patient's widow
Louise Slorance (pictured) is leading a campaign to find answers regarding a catalogue of deaths at Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, including that of her late husband Andrew.
Humza Yousaf says he was “disturbed” by the newspaper reports, but during the rest of his response Anas Sarwar was sitting shaking his head.
Mr Sarwar said: “It is disgusting. It is the latest in a litany of shameful incidents that has seen this health board intimidating whistleblowers and families.
“The culture in this board is rotten.”
He added: “You don’t need an inquiry to say spying on the relatives of dead patients is wrong.
“Sack the rotten leadership and get justice for these families.”
Moving on to Alex Cole-Hamilton from the Scottish Lib Dems, who is criticising the government for NHS staffing levels. He says staff are angry when the government blames issues on the coronavirus pandemic as it was a problem before the pandemic started in 2020.
Humza Yousaf says he doesn’t agree with Mr Cole-Hamilton’s characterisation. He says there are more people working in the NHS than when the SNP took office in 2007. He says the numbers of medical consultants, dental consultants, A&E consultants, clinical radiologists, nurses and midwives have all gone up.
Catch up on our health correspondent Joseph Anderson’s look at how much pressure NHS staff are under.
NHS Scotland vacancy crisis: Medics lift lid on "immense pressure" on staff as patients left unattended
Medics in the NHS have sounded the alarm on Scotland’s vacancy crisis, with GPs under “immense pressure”, patients in hospitals being ignored by overworked staff, and carers being asked to take blood samples.
Take a look at Holyrood Magazine’s video clip of Douglas Ross highlighting issues with the South Uist ferry crossing:
The chamber are now talking about NHS staff and carers’ rights. Pam Gosal, Conservative MSP for West Scotland, says Humza Yousaf has failed to secure enough frontline staff.
Edward Mountain, Conservative MSP for the Highlands and Islands, is now asking about rural tourism. His party led a debate on this earlier this week where they criticised the SNP-Green government for abandoning tourism businesses. Take a look at my piece from earlier in the week on this issue:
Warning tourism businesses “won’t survive” because of Scottish Government policies
Top tourism leader says businesses are feeling “very exposed”
Edward Mountain said the government needs to give more money to local authorities to tackle the “major problem” of “dirty camping”.
HumzaYousaf says a lot of the funding for this was temporary to deal with a “huge increase” in dirty camping after lockdown.
Is dirty camping something you’ve had a problem with recently? Drop me a DM on Twitter @RachelAmery.
Claire Baker, Labour MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, is asking what the Scottish Government is doing after the UN criticised the government over its record on child human rights. I took a look at the UN’s report on this last week, where they highlighted their concerns that 16 and 17 year olds are allowed to marry in Scotland. Catch up on it here:
UN says both the Scottish and UK governments need to do more to improve children's human rights
A UN committee says Scottish ministers urgently need to speed up the introduction of a children’s human rights bill
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