Report to the People
31st January 2005
Committee Backs Our Arguments
Everyone
who has campaigned against the downgrading of the IRH – and against the
centralisation of health services across Scotland in general – can allow
themselves a small, if rare, smile this week.
The
Scottish Parliament’s Health Committee, on which I sit, has published the
findings of its year-long inquiry into NHS workforce planning and – after
years of being told by the medical establishment that we were too thick or too
emotional to understand the issues – it backs up almost every one our
arguments.
The
report joins us in questioning the current medical orthodoxy of favouring
specialisation, which – as we know – can lead to centralisation and the
closure of local services. It also
argues that, whilst some services, for example cancer care, are best provided in
specialist units, the medical case for across-the-board specialisation remains
to be proved. Again, spot on.
Other
recommendations include establishing a national strategy to attract overseas
health professionals to Scotland and creating an extra 100 undergraduate places
at Scottish medical schools.
This
is an important report. Its key
findings now need to be debated properly – and not just by the usual suspects.
It’s good news, then, that the Committee is organising a public debate
on the matter in the Parliament this Spring.
It’s
hardly time to pop the champagne, but it is heartening that, the more we examine
this issue, the more the truth of our arguments is borne out and the more the
flaws of our opponents’ case are exposed.
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