Latest news with #MeghanGallacher
Daily Record
21-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Record
Lanarkshire MSP calls for government to help parents using Wishaw neonatal unit
Conservative Meghan Gallacher raised concerns about the uncertain and traumatising situation many face when dealing with neonatal services in Scotland. A Lanarkshire MSP has called for government ministers to secure overnight accommodation for parents in neonatal wards. Conservative Meghan Gallacher raised concerns about the uncertain and traumatising situation many face when dealing with neonatal services in Scotland. Speaking during her member's business in Holyrood on the Best Start New Model of Neonatal Care, she raised concerns over the downgrading of the neonatal department at University Hospital Wishaw and called for Ministers to ensure that there is sufficient overnight accommodation, so parents can stay with their babies in hospitals. The intention to downgrade neonatal units, including Wishaw's neonatal department, provoked strong backlash from communities and campaign groups in Lanarkshire, with an online petition surpassing 25,000 signatures to stop the downgrade. Central Scotland list MSP Meghan said: 'In 2025, it is scandalous that there appears to be no solutions in place to provide parents with reassurance that they will be able to stay by their newborn side. 'If the Scottish Government is committed to providing high-quality care to the sickest babies, they need to get a move on, the implementation of the recommendations of the Best Start Model for neonatal care has been painfully slow, leading to great uncertainty. 'Families who may be affected in the future and staff working in these services deserve improved facilities and to know how long this new model will take to implement. 'That is why I'm calling on the Minister to ensure that every hospital currently specialising in neonatal care has the appropriate accommodation for parents. 'This is essential for any new model of neonatal care – it's basic common sense. 'I feel so passionately about this issue because I am a mum, and I will continue to push this Government to improve neonatal services across Scotland and stop the downgrade of Wishaw neonatal department.' The Scottish Government plans to downgrade the Wishaw unit's status after accepting 76 recommendations made in the 'Best Start' report from 2017. It means that the number of NICU units that would be able to care for children born from 27 weeks would reduce from eight to three, in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow. A campaign against the plans to changes services at Wishaw hospital, led by the Wishaw Neonatal Warriors group, said the plans would be 'catastrophic'. The Scottish Government's plans to downgrade the unit has also been an issue in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse Scottish Parliamentary by-election. SNP candidate Katy Loudon spoke on the issue in an interview conducted by the Daily Record last week. She said: 'Fundamentally, the science, the experts, the medical research, tells us the best outcomes for these children, which will affect them for the rest of their life - these very small and sick babies - is to have them in a specialist centre. And as a parent that's what I would want for my child.' She added: 'I will listen to the expertise of people who have made those medical judgements and who have advised the Scottish Government on what is the best thing to do here. 'The best thing to do is to have a specialist centre when you are dealing with something which is affecting such a small subset then that's what I would want for my own child.' *Don't miss the latest headlines from around Lanarkshire. Sign up to our newsletters here.
Daily Record
14-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Record
MSP slams Scottish Government's 'broken promise' to eradicate delayed discharge in NHS Lanarkshire.
Meghan Gallacher's call comes after new statistics from Public Health Scotland showed that over 60,000 bed days were lost in March alone because of so-called bed-blocking across Scotland's hospitals. Central Scotland Conservative MSP Meghan Gallacher has slammed the Scottish Government's 'broken promise' to eradicate delayed discharge in NHS Lanarkshire. Meghan's call comes after new statistics from Public Health Scotland showed that over 60,000 bed days were lost in March alone because of so-called bed-blocking across Scotland's hospitals. That was a rise from the 58,646 days lost to bed-blocking in the same month last year. The 'shocking' figures come despite the then health secretary Shona Robison promising to 'eradicate' delayed discharge over a decade ago. In NHS Lanarkshire, a total of 4,694 bed days were lost, despite patients being otherwise fit and healthy to return home. Meghan says the SNP have failed to resource hospitals and social care services in NHS Lanarkshire while squandering £30 million on their doomed plans for a centralised national care service. She said: 'With each passing month, the SNP continue to shamefully break their promise to eradicate delayed discharge. 'It is now over a decade since then SNP health secretary Shona Robison made that promise, but 4,694 bed days are still being lost in NHS Lanarkshire due to so-called bed blocking. 'The SNP's failure to support frontline health and social care services is trapping in hospital patients who are otherwise fit and healthy enough to leave. 'These shocking figures sum up the folly of SNP ministers squandering tens of millions on their plans for a National Care Service when patients in NHS Lanarkshire need care packages right now. 'The failure to tackle delayed discharge in NHS Lanarkshire also has a devastating impact on frontline services across NHS Lanarkshire where patients wait longer at A&E or see vital operations cancelled at the last minute, due to a lack of bed space. 'It is time for SNP ministers to focus on getting money to where it is needed most, rather than wasting it on pointless bureaucracy, so that patients can get out of hospital when they are fit to do so.' Nationally, 60,129 bed days were lost in March – with an average of 1,940 people in hospital each day due to delayed discharge. The latter was the lowest figure since April last year. Health Secretary Neil Gray said: 'While around 97 per cent of all hospital discharges happen without delay, we recognise that delays remain too high. 'However, the latest figures show a welcome reduction, and when coupled with improvements in A&E and planned care waiting times, it's clear that progress in performance is being made. 'We have a clear plan to continue to reduce delayed discharge and our budget provides £200 million to help reduce waiting list backlogs, improve capacity and remove blockages that keep some patients in hospital longer than they need to be. 'We are determined to continue delivering better outcomes for patients so that they are cared for in the right setting and hospital beds are there for those who need them.' *Don't miss the latest headlines from around Lanarkshire. Sign up to our newsletters here.
Telegraph
07-04-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
‘Arrogant' SNP introduces more rent controls
SNP ministers have been accused of 'arrogantly' ignoring the failure of their previous rent controls after unveiling plans for another cap on rises. They tabled plans at Holyrood that would see rent increases in 'control areas' capped at 1 per cent above the CPI measure of inflation, up to a maximum of 6 per cent. Under the amendments lodged to the Housing (Scotland) Bill, the cap would apply both to rent increases during the term of a tenancy and in-between tenancies. Ministers would be tasked with determining which areas in Scotland should fall under control areas, with 12 of Scotland's local authorities having declared a housing emergency. But industry data have disclosed that previous SNP controls backfired by pushing up average rent rises in Scotland, above the increases seen in England. Experts said the controls curtailed investment in the private rented housing sector and led to landlords withdrawing their properties from the market. This exacerbated a shortage of rental properties for tenants. It emerged last month that building work started last year on the lowest number of private houses since 2013, apart from during the pandemic. Meghan Gallacher, the Scottish Tories' shadow housing secretary, said: 'Disconnected SNP ministers are arrogantly still refusing to accept that previous rent caps schemes ended up in disaster. 'The previous measures drove away much-needed investment in Scotland's housing sector and crippled tenants with soaring rent increases. 'SNP ministers' plans for permanent rent controls will do nothing to tackle Scotland's housing emergency which has occurred on their watch and left thousands of families languishing in temporary accommodation.' John Blackwood, chief executive of the Scottish Association of Landlords, welcomed the amendments allowing property owners to increase rents. But he said: 'Landlords are quite rightly extremely concerned about rent controls, and many have already sold up and exited the sector. 'Now, more than ever, the Scottish Government needs to work with private landlords to secure the future of private renting in Scotland and ensure people have homes to rent when and where they need them.' The SNP introduced an emergency rent cap in October 2022. The policy was supposed to be a short-term measure to support tenants through the cost of living crisis. However, the cap was extended and, while it ended last year, a temporary framework of rent controls is still in place while the SNP finalises the Bill, which aims to make them permanent. Shirley-Anne Somerville, the Social Justice Secretary, said: 'Ensuring families can have secure and affordable homes that meet their needs is part of our approach to tackling the housing emergency. 'These measures will also help protect tenants against a backdrop of a continuing cost of living crisis and rising energy costs. 'We are doing what we can with the powers that we have as we know our policies are working to improve the lives of families in Scotland.' She said the Scottish Government had been 'working closely with tenants' organisations' in the legislation, 'including a system of long-term rent controls that is fair for tenants and encourages investment in the sector'. Aditi Jehangir, chairman of tenants' union Living Rent, said: 'The in-between tenancy protections suggested by the Government are crucial. They mean that landlords will stop evicting tenants to up the rent. 'However, the rent increase formula suggested locks in increases above inflation. The last decade has seen rents grow completely unaffordable. Any formula that increases rents above the rate of inflation will push already struggling tenants further into poverty.'
BBC News
20-02-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Child psychiatric units to get extra inspections following BBC report
Extra inspections are to be carried out at children's psychiatric units following allegations about cruelty made in a BBC documentary, a government minister has revealed. Patients who were teenagers when they were admitted to Skye House, a specialist NHS unit in Glasgow, told BBC Disclosure about a culture of cruelty among nursing Todd, minister for mental wellbeing, told the Scottish Parliament she had requested visits and recommendations for improvements in response to the programme. "The care and treatment of young people as described in the programme are completely and wholly unacceptable," she said. Programme-makers spoke to 28 former patients while making BBC Disclosure's Kids on The Psychiatric Ward said the 24-bed psychiatric hospital, which sits in the grounds of Glasgow's Stobhill hospital, was like "hell". 'Institutional crisis' On Wednesday, Meghan Gallacher, Conservative MSP for Central Scotland, asked in the Scottish Parliament how the Scottish government was responding to the programme. She said she had been supporting a family whose daughter was "illegally sectioned and brought to Skye house" where she was "subjected to abuse and neglectful care" in 2022."The abuse and cruelty that were shown in the documentary lay bare the institutional crisis at Skye house," Ms Gallacher said. "Those young women were children - children who needed our care and support."Ms Todd said the programme was a "difficult watch" and thanked the young people and their families for "having the courage to come forward". "The cabinet secretary and I will meet NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde as soon as possible to seek direct assurance," she said."We will also meet NHS Lothian and NHS Tayside, which host the other two adolescent units in Scotland."She said she had asked Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland to carry out a series of joint visits to all adolescent in-patient units in Scotland and the national child in-patient unit. "HIS and the commission will use those visits to make recommendations on what is required to ensure the quality and safety of our child and adolescent mental health services in-patient units, both now and into the future," Ms Todd added."I will be focused on ensuring that the improvements in child and adolescent mental health services, which are clearly needed, happen as a result of our interventions."NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde previously said a review of medication was carried out in 2023 and this changed the way medication was administered.
