I recently visited Asda in Kirkcaldy to take part in their free diabetes tests that they are offering shoppers in their pharmacies throughout Scotland. The offer allows customers to undertake a free diabetes screening test whilst doing their weekly shop, without having to make a prior appointment.
With the pharmacies being open seven days a week, including bank holidays, and with late opening hours Monday to Saturday it is hoped that it will encourage shoppers to take a test and reduce the number of people who are suffering with undiagnosed diabetes in Scotland.
This week in Parliament I backed an innovative project which raises awareness of the vital contribution of those who care for adults across the Kingdom living with dementia.
The Dementia Carer Voices Project from the Health and Social Care Alliance harnesses the work of Tommy Whitelaw, a former carer for his late Mum Joan, who has collected hundreds of life stories from people which detail the difficult and different experience of caring for a loved one living with dementia.
These stories demonstrated that carers of people with dementia often feel isolated and that there is insufficient recognition of the range of complex issues about which they are expected to have understanding.
The project aims to empower carers by raising awareness of dementia and the carer journey amongst health and social care professionals, and providing a platform from which carers’ views and experiences can inform future policy and service provision.
Speaking during a debate on Parliament I said:
“Dementia is a condition which impacts on so many families and individuals across Scotland and it is a condition which is only expected to increase.
“The level of demand will impact on health and social cares services and we must ensure we develop services which will respond to these increasing demands.
“The letters that have been collected are powerful and are testimony to the valuable work that carers do, but they are also about human experience. Being a carer is not a job, it is part of being a family and the letters demonstrate that while people do it for the best of reasons, they can’t and shouldn’t have to do it alone.”
Programme Director of the Health and Social Care Alliance, Irene Oldfather, said:
“Discussing and debating the carer experience is to be welcomed as a way of increasing awareness of dementia and the carer journey.
“Carers of people with dementia describe the journey as an emotional roller coaster which is both rewarding and incredibly sad as you lose a little of the person each day. The ALLIANCE welcomes the Parliamentary debate and the commitment of MSPS across the chamber to promoting the carer experience.”
Dementia Carer Voices Project Officer, Tommy Whitelaw, said:
“I would like to thank MSPs for their on-going interest and taking this opportunity to listen to the thoughts, feelings and experiences of carers. It is imperative that we raise awareness of the impact of dementia on families, and the vital role played by carers, so that nobody else in Scotland has to go through the caring journey experiencing the loneliness and isolation that we did.”
Yesterday in Parliament I opened for Scottish Labour on the Food Policy debate calling for the Scottish Government to rethink how they award school meals contracts.
The horsemeat scandal has raised many questions that the Scottish Government still need to answer not least around the issue of school meals. We will probably never know how much horsemeat was in the food chain prior to the breakout of the scandal or how long the adulteration of food had been taking place.
Previously the Cabinet Secretary told Parliament that food and drink contracts are awarded with a balance between price and quality. However it has since came out that the national procurement contract for school meals was awarded with price weighted three times as much as quality and we now know that school meals cost as low as £1.68.
It has since been revealed that the Scotland Excel contract for school catering is awarding a weighting of 65 per cent to price compared with 20 per cent to quality. Cost is therefore given more than three times greater weighting than quality. That is not a balance. Was the cabinet secretary aware of the 65:20 ratio weighting when he made the statement to Parliament? Does he agree that it would have been better to have greater clarity for members and parents?
It has also been announced that the average cost of school meals across Scotland is as low as £1.68 in certain areas. For some children their school dinner is their only meal of the day. For that reason it is vital that the lunch they eat is healthy, nutritious and exactly as described.
Previously I have held debates on the Fife Diet manifesto in the hope to start a discussion on our relationship with food; unfortunately it has taken a food crisis to bring us to this point.
Scotland does produce some of the world’s finest food and drink and that industry is a vital part of our economy, that however does not mask the reality that is a rise in food banks, demand for food parcels and one in six children go to bed hungry each night.
Below you can find a video of yesterday’s debate along with a copy of my speech moving our motion.
Taken from the Scottish Parliament Official Report:
Claire Baker (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): In September I was pleased to bring to the Parliament a members’ business debate on the Fife diet manifesto. I hoped to start or encourage discussion about our relationship with food, how we eat and how we grow and trade food. The need for such discussion has, if anything, intensified in the wake of recent food scandals, and it is unfortunate that it has needed a crisis to bring us to this point.
I doubt that any member disagrees with the cabinet secretary when he says that Scotland produces some of the world’s finest food and that our food and drink industry is a vital part of the Scottish economy. However, although we recognise the contribution of our farming sector and our fishermen and although we welcome initiatives that promote the best of what Scotland has to offer, the stark reality is that food banks are on the rise, the demand for food parcels has doubled and, according to Save the Children, one in six children goes to bed hungry every night.
In the debate in September, members discussed a food sector that is dominated by a few companies. In recent weeks, we have seen how such companies influence the food chain. The horsemeat scandal magnified the issue, implicating large companies that many people considered to be reputable, safe and trustworthy, such as Findus, Birds Eye, Tesco and Asda.
It is right that we challenge supermarkets about their supply chains and that we identify the need for more European Union action on labelling. However, the Scottish Government has responsibility for regulation and implementation in Scotland, and recent events force us to ask whether our system is robust enough to be able to restore consumers’ confidence and trust. The restoration of trust would benefit industry as well as consumers.
We await final results from DNA testing and, given the weekly reports of a new company or product being implicated in relation to food fraud, it seems that we have not yet resolved the problem. It is important that we ask the hard questions. We can acknowledge the strong approach to traceability in Scottish farming and the positives of our food sector, but we cannot be complacent.
Since the cabinet secretary’s statement on the horsemeat scandal, we have learned that two large catering companies, Brakes and Sodexo, which supply the public sector, have been supplying adulterated meat products. Questions about who supplied the companies with those products remain unanswered. Has the cabinet secretary been told who supplied the meat? If so, will he inform Parliament and consumers? If we are to aim for a transparent food chain and full traceability, we need to know where the processed meat originated. If we are to restore consumer confidence, we must ensure that all information is available and that there is full traceability to where the horsemeat originated.
In his statement to the Parliament, the cabinet secretary told us that food and drink contracts are awarded with regard to a balance between price and quality. We were told that quality is vital in the awarding of a contract and that the lowest price will not necessarily win the contract.
It has since been revealed that the Scotland Excel contract for school catering is awarding a weighting of 65 per cent to price compared with 20 per cent to quality. Cost is therefore given more than three times greater weighting than quality. That is not a balance. Was the cabinet secretary aware of the 65:20 ratio weighting when he made the statement to Parliament? Does he agree that it would have been better to have greater clarity for members and parents?
Recently, it was announced that the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment would join the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning in hosting a school meals summit. We now know that the average cost for a school meal is as low as £1.68. Although we can point towards local authorities such as East Ayrshire Council and its focus on local food sourcing, it is evident that local authorities have been encouraged towards national procurement contracts as a means to deliver best value.
Parents and carers should be able to send their children to school in confidence that the lunch that they eat is healthy, nutritious and exactly as described. For some children across Scotland, the school dinner is their only meal of the day. Transparency, traceability and quality must be higher on the agenda. We look forward to hearing more from the cabinet secretary on the outcomes of the recent summit.
We will probably never know how much horsemeat was in the food chain prior to the breakout of the scandal or how long the adulteration of food had been taking place. It has been clear throughout that the complexity of the supply chains and the relationships between companies have been difficult for people to understand. If the Food Safety Authority of Ireland had not found traces of horsemeat DNA in beefburgers on 15 January, there is every chance that the recall of contaminated products would not be taking place.
The Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals believes that there are 70,000 horses unaccounted for in Northern Ireland. Through the close working of the USPCA and the Scottish SPCA, we know that Scottish ports have been used in the transportation of maltreated horses with fake passports. Was the cabinet secretary aware of the conviction and subsequent fine of a horse trader from Northern Ireland in November 2012 at Stranraer sheriff court for transporting maltreated horses with no or fake passports? In the current circumstances, that recent conviction is concerning. Did any information sharing take place on that conviction? Of course, hindsight is a wonderful thing, but we can perhaps now recognise that there is a greater need for agencies to share information. Sometimes the connections are not easy to identify.
A national debate started because of the horsemeat scandal, but that has grown into a much wider examination of food standards. Waitrose withdrew a product that was contaminated with pork at its Shettleston plant, which is a major concern for halal customers. There have also been more recent reports that banned mechanically separated meat is being used in the UK to count towards meat content. Only last weekend, questions were raised about the reliability and accuracy of meat dish labelling in restaurants.
Although many of the cases are about mislabelling, there are also public health concerns. George Fairgrieve, the food safety adviser at the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland, recently said:
“A worrying impact of the reduction in the number of inspections being carried out is that the opportunity for fraudulent activity increases and law-abiding traders are disadvantaged …. There are other vital areas of public health that must also be considered, for example preventing or dealing with outbreaks of E-coli O157 and Legionella.”
The latest revelations show once again that it is the average customer who is being let down.
The FSA Scotland’s consultation launch last week was welcome. We must take that as an opportunity to review what is working and what needs to be improved.
Rob Gibson (Caithness, Sutherland and Ross) (SNP): Does the member agree that cuts in the FSA—the cuts emanated from the previous Labour Government in London and the coalition Government has made further cuts—have made it more difficult for testing to take place, and that that affects people as much in Scotland as it does in the rest of the UK?
Claire Baker: Since 2008, under the Scottish National Party’s watch, we have seen a reduction in the number of meat inspectors and environmental health officers. Under the Scottish Government, cuts have been passed down to local authorities. We see the pressures that they face and, if we work in a light-touch regulatory system, those are seen as easy areas to make reductions.
Last week my colleague, Dr Simpson, asked questions about the FSA’s funding. Although commitments were given on the stability of FSA funding, the new body will have additional responsibilities that will need to be fully supported.
To go back to Rob Gibson’s comments, the debate should give us the opportunity to ask whether we have things right and to recognise where there are mistakes in the current system. Regardless of where those mistakes emanate from, the debate gives us a chance to ask whether we have the regulatory system right and whether we are delivering the best interests of the consumer.
A recent Unison Scotland report raises concerns about the drop in food sampling by a third, the reduction of meat inspectors by 50 per cent and the drop in the number of environmental health officers in local authorities. Some 56 per cent of environmental health officers say that their teams have had major cuts. A further 10 per cent describe cuts as severe and one member said:
“We have not submitted any samples for food in ten months!”
The issue is not only the reduction in staff numbers but the way in which the system operates. Random testing, unannounced visits and a system for whistleblowing are needed if we are to have integrity in the system.
A combination of lighter-touch regulation and financial pressures has resulted in fewer checks and balances. Professor Andrew Watterson of the University of Stirling described the risks:
“Declines in meat inspector numbers and local authority food safety officers, along with reduced food sampling, must contribute to a weakening of public health standards and the possibility of criminal abuses in the food system.”
Of course, I recognise the FSA’s work in recent weeks and the additional inspections that have been carried out. However, those are all after the event and I imagine that, even if there had been any problems, the premises would have got their houses in order for preannounced visits. Given what we now know, we need a robust assessment of whether the system provides us with confidence.
Food is a complex issue. The Parliament has been bold in other areas of public health, but our food policy is defined primarily by export levels and quality products. Those are both positive outcomes, but our food policy must work for everyone in Scotland. It is important for our economy, our health and addressing inequalities.
The Government motion does not address the challenges that we face in relation to food, the growing inequality around food and the crisis that has engulfed the sector throughout Europe. Those are the matters that the Parliament needs to address.
I move amendment S4M-05892.3, to leave out from “welcomes” to “policy and” and insert:
“supports the promotion of local produce and sourcing while recognising the need for affordability, particularly as the demand on food banks rises; notes the recent food scandal, including the adulteration of products with horsemeat, which has affected products sold throughout Scotland and, in learning lessons from this, believes that a robust regulatory regime is necessary to ensure the highest standard of food labelling and food safety to restore consumer confidence and trust; expresses concern that a school in Scotland was supplied with adulterated food through a national procurement contract; calls on the Scottish Government to outline what action it will take following the school meals summit; highlights the recent members’ survey by Unison that raises concerns over staff cuts, reductions in food sampling and the future of the meat inspection service and calls on the Scottish Government to outline its response to this; recognises the progress that has been made through the national food and drink policy but believes that there is no room for complacency as it”.
This week I have called for Scottish Government action after latest figures show that accident and emergency waiting times have hit a record number since the SNP came to power.
The Scottish Government’s failure to address the underlying problems in our NHS is resulting in the people of Fife having to pay the price when it comes to accident and emergency waiting times.
According to latest figures nationally the number of patients seen within the four hour waiting time target fell to 90.3 per cent in December 2012. This is the lowest ever recorded since the target was introduced in December 2007 and follows a downward trend in compliance with the A&E waiting time target every month since July of last year.
It is the job of the SNP Government to ensure that winter planning measures are in place for any potential increase in patients due to winter illnesses but this has clearly failed as December’s results are at their worst for 5 years. This is not an isolated incident as there has been an ongoing downward trend since July that the Government is failing to halt.
Locally, NHS Fife had the third highest number of patients, across Scotland, waiting over 12 hours in December 2012. Throughout the final month of last year 65 patients had to wait over 12 hours in accident and emergency, an average of over two per day. Only NHS Lothian, with 78 patients, and NHS Lanarkshire, with 117 patients, posted worse results.
Week after week we hear personal stories of patients experiencing the pressures placed on NHS Fife. The SNP are asking NHS staff to do more with less and we cannot continue down this path without expecting consequences for patients.
NHS Fife failing to meet their accident and emergency waiting time target follows on from missing their cancer waiting time target, a fall in the number of hospital bed available and a rise in hospital complaints.
We need urgent action from the Scottish Government to address failings of their own making and I will be writing to the Health Secretary to raise my concerns regarding NHS Fife.
In Parliament yesterday I questioned the Minister for Public Health, Michael Matheson, on Scotland’s new food safety body.
This Ministerial Statement was on the back of the current horse scandal – which I have talked about previously http://www.clairebaker.org/?p=361 – and an announcement in June of last year that a new food body would be created in Scotland.
The Scudamore report which recommended a new food standards agency reported in April 2012 and the Minister announced he would take this forward in June of that same year so it is unfortunate that it has taken a scandal to force our Government into action.
The horse meat scandal has also brought to light that the FSA in Scotland underspent its budget by 10% and that meat inspectors have halved since 2008 raising questions on just how robust our food regulatory system currently is.
A video of the statement can be found below along with a copy of my question to the Minister and his reply.
Taken from the Scottish Parliament Official Report.
Claire Baker (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): As the minister will know, the number of meat inspectors has halved since 2008. While that is partly due to a reduction in the number of premises requiring inspection, there has been a move towards lighter-touch regulation, with a reduction in the number and frequency of inspections.
Only today, we hear news of banned mechanically separated meat being used in the UK to count towards meat content. Will the minister respond to Unison Scotland’s warning against the introduction of a new body that promotes lighter-touch regulation? Will he give an assurance, particularly given what we now know about the food chain, that the new system, with a robust regulatory framework that puts consumers’ interests first, will prevent future scandals of this nature?
Michael Matheson: I hope that the member has been reassured by my statement that the primary focus and overall objective of the new food safety body in Scotland will be consumer protection.
The member asked about the number of meat inspectors. Meat inspectors are provided at a UK level and operate throughout UK, rather than specifically through the Food Standards Agency in Scotland. Their numbers have changed for a variety of reasons. For example, the number of abattoirs has reduced. In addition, during incidents such as the BSE and foot-and-mouth outbreaks, inspectors were put into premises but, once the restrictions that followed those incidents were reduced or removed, the number of inspectors that had to be present in those premises also reduced.
The new food body in Scotland and the review group that I have set up give us the opportunity to look at what we have at the moment. Are there ways in which we could do things better? Do we need to look at how we can improve the inspection and regulatory regimes to get them fit for purpose in a way that best suits Scotland’s needs?
There is no intention of having a lighter touch with existing regulation, but we need to make sure that we have a proportionate, intelligence-based system that uses the best science and evidence to support its work.
Fife MSP Claire Baker has today welcomed news that the cancer drug abiraterone has finally been approved for use for prostate cancer sufferers in the Kingdom.
The drug was originally only available to those who are in the advanced stages of prostate cancer in England and Wales but after lobbying by groups such as Prostate Cancer UK and MSPs including Claire Baker the drug was finally approved by the Scottish Medicines Consortium in August.
The drug, however, was still to be made available in Fife as late as October as NHS Fife were “bound be the decision taken by NHS Lothian on behalf of the Cancer Network.”
Claire Baker said:
“I welcome the news from NHS that abiraterone will finally be available in the Kingdom. It’s important that doctors have the full range of treatments at their disposal when dealing with a patient.
“Prostate cancer is the most common male cancer and it was vital that we addressed the disparities between the drug being available to cancer suffers south of the border but not in Scotland.
“Thankfully this has now been rectified and the availability of aribaterone will lead to sufferers of prostate cancer living a better quality of life.”
Scottish Labour MSP Claire Baker has signed up to MASScot’s campaign to prevent skin cancer, the most common cancer in 15 to 34 year olds in Scotland.
MASScot (Melanoma Action & Support Scotland) hosted an exhibition in the Scottish Parliament, highlighting the high incidence of malignant melanoma in Scotland.
MASScot asked the MSPs to consider a public education campaign to prevent skin cancers by avoiding sunburn and to make people aware of the early signs of skin cancer and the dangers of sunbed use.
Early diagnosis with removal by minor surgery will cure thin melanomas, but all too often the early signs of cancer are missed. MSPs were asked to sign that they agreed that Sun Protection is Vital and add a comment of their own.
Cancer drug Abiraterone is still not available to prostate cancer sufferers in the Kingdom despite being approved by the Scottish Medicines Consortium in August.
Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, had previously written to NHS Fife for an update on the availability of abiraterone. Their reply stated that as part of the South East Scotland Cancer Network (SCAN) they will be “bound by the decision taken by NHS Lothian on behalf of the Cancer Network”.
It is reported that abiraterone can extend the lives of men with incurable prostate cancer and was previously available only in England and Wales.
Yet after lobbying by groups such as Prostate Cancer UK and MSPs including Claire Baker the drug, having previously been rejected, was finally approved for use in Scotland.
The drug will be available only to men with advanced prostate cancer who are no longer responding to docetaxel or hormone therapies.
Claire Baker, speaking from Kirkcaldy, commented:
“The first step has been taken with the approval of abiraterone by the SMC but now we need to make sure that the drug is being offered by local NHS boards for those that qualify.
“I wrote to NHS Fife to ask for an update in the process of making abiraterone available as it is important that doctors have the full range of treatments at their disposal when dealing with a patient.
“The drug was approved in August yet sufferers in Fife cannot get access to the treatment until it is signed off by NHS Lothian. This decision has still not been taken and I will be writing to NHS Lothian to call on them to now take the decision.
“Prostate cancer is the most common male cancer and it was a black dot on our National Health Service that this treatment was available in England and Wales but not Scotland. Thankfully that has since been rectified and it should be available in Fife.”
Fife MSP Claire Baker is calling on the Scottish Government to get to grips with the NHS as hospital complaints rise in Fife Health Board for the third year running.
Latest statistics have shown that the number of complaints received by Fife Health Board have reached their highest level since 1997.
In the past year the number of complaints has risen by 10.8%, with a 38.9% increase since the SNP won power in 2007.
Nationally, Hospital and Community Health Service complaints has seen a 15 per cent rise across Scotland in the last year.
Claire Baker MSP said:
“Whilst the NHS should be striving to meet patient standards the reality is that Scottish Government cut backs are not allowing them to fulfil this purpose.
“We have a state of the art hospital in Kirkcaldy, yet week after week we learn of growing concerns over patient care. At the same time we are hearing about examples of patients’ suffering indignity we are seeing a decreasing number of nurses, this is no coincidence.
“At no point since the creation of the Scottish Parliament has the number of complaints in Fife been this high and this is simply not good enough for the people in Fife. There is a real danger that as that the next wave of government cuts attacks resources and staffing then the number of complaints will only continue to increase.
“With £190 million being cut over the next three years and with the SNP moving Nicola Sturgeon away from Health to focus on the referendum it is becoming clear that they are taking their eye off the ball and showing where their real priorities lie.”
Claire Baker MSP has joined calls for the Scottish Government to get a grip over dwindling hospital bed numbers in Fife Health Board.
New figures recently realised show that 1,000 beds have been cut in hospitals across Scotland since the SNP came in to power in 2007.
In Fife Health Board bed numbers are at an all time low with a hundred fewer beds in 2012 than five years ago.
This follows a number of SNP health cuts, signed off by the former health secretary Nicola Sturgeon.
Since coming to power the SNP have presided over the loss of 2,500 nurses and midwives, a rise in accident and emergency waiting times and complaints reaching a record high.
Claire Baker MSP said:
“Despite pledges to protect the NHS budget the reality of the SNP’s choices in government is that patient care continues to suffer as the NHS buckles under the pressure of trying to do more with fewer resources.
“Patients in Fife are suffering, not through the fault of doctors and nurses, but because of government cut backs.”
“NHS Fife is being over stretched and there is a real fear that it will soon be at breaking point.
