BANFFSHIRE and BUCHAN COAST Liberal Democrats

Responding to Nicola Sturgeon's conference speech, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

"Nicola Sturgeon's speech had almost twice as many references to independence as it did to the health service.

"If only the energy that she and her party put into trying to leave the UK was poured into health, education and the climate emergency.

Responding to the First Minister's Covid briefing, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

"I understand the worry and dismay that so many will be feeling at the emergence of a new variant.

"For months I have been arguing that the contact tracing system is not sufficiently rigorous and well-resourced to break chains of infection. We were lucky that vaccines arrived when they did because otherwise the system would have completely collapsed. This was a huge failure on the part of Scottish ministers.

Responding to today's funding package for GPs, health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

"As someone who has been advocating for multidisciplinary teams for some time, I think that bringing the likes of physiotherapy and mental health support into GP surgeries is a step in the direction.

"The real risk however is that only GP surgeries that can find the staff can move ahead with these plans. There are still major issues with recruitment and retention across our NHS and not enough movement on the part of the government to solve these issues.

Responding to the First Minister's interview on The Andrew Marr Show, where she was challenged about the crisis in emergency care, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

"Experts including Nicola Sturgeon's health chief of six years say this emergency care crisis would have happened even without covid. The situation is much worse than it needed to be because warnings were ignored for years.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today said that the Scottish Government must offer new hope to long Covid sufferers as he set out proposals to remobilise volunteers and give people more options for treatment by expanding social prescribing.

Social prescribing involves helping patients to improve their health and wellbeing by connecting them to a range of community and non-clinical services at no cost to the patient.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has today called for an inquiry into avoidable emergency care deaths after new analysis of these life and death services was published for the first time.

The Scottish Ambulance Service have announced that they are to provide weekly updates on unscheduled care incidents.

Responding to Kate Forbes' comments on Good Morning Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

"It is depressingly obvious that the SNP cares more about pushing another independence referendum than your parent's operation, your partner's job, or your child's education.

"The Finance Secretary says the coming days will be dominated by independence. That's the story of the last fourteen years and the impact of that ministerial distraction can be seen in every corner of our public services.

Responding to the announcement that hundreds of coronavirus contact tracers are being kept on until at least September next year, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

"When we were seeing more than 6,000 cases a day and contact tracers were reduced to sending close contacts a text message, I warned that the system was not robust enough and called for more staff. Hardworking staff in health boards and at the national contact centre were run off their feet because the Health Secretary refused to send in reinforcements for so long.

On Carers Rights Day 2021, North East Fife's MSP and MP are calling on the UK and Scottish governments to support carers through a significant uplift in the carers allowance they receive and to help unpaid carers by providing guaranteed respite.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats have said that the Carers Allowance should be permanently increased across the UK by £1,000 per year and have called on the Scottish Government to double its Carers Allowance Supplement for 2022, while also extending its Covid uplift over the same period, in line with new powers available this winter.

Responding to new figures from the Scottish Ambulance Service showing that there have been more than 500 verbal or physical assaults on staff in the past 22 months, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton commented:

"Nobody should have to go to work with a reasonable expectation that they might be assaulted.