LibDems and other parties defeat Conservative motion to help Highland people – Scotland

March 17th, 2010 | Author: Jim Ferguson

I was totally shocked to hear that a Conservative motion was defeated by the LibDems and other parties to a motion put forward by Conservative MSP Mary Scanlon to use badly needed funds to assist local people in the Highlands and Islands.

The rate of registrations for Highlands and Islands NHS is a mere 50.7% which is a shockingly low rate of registrations and this money could have been put to good use for local people across the area.

If this is the sheer contempt that the SNP, Labour and LibDems have for the Highlands then I would urge people to remember this betrayal of their health interests at the coming General Election.

Jim Ferguson

Conservative move to treat 27,000 new dental patients and scrap SNP dental propaganda is defeated

A Conservative motion aimed at annulling the £2.4m annual cost of allowing patients to remain registered with a dentist forever, regardless of whether they have ever been treated, has been rejected by other parties at Health Committee.

£2.4m would be enough to fund at least 20 more dentists, which means an extra 27,000 patients could have been treated

Mary Scanlon MSP, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Health & Wellbeing, says:

“At a cost of two and half million pounds every year, the SNP Government wants to allow the names of patients to remain registered with a dentist for ever – even if that patient hasn’t turned up for years or hasn’t turned up at all. By contrast, if my annulment had been accepted this morning, at least 20 new dentists could have been funded and 27,000 extra patients treated.

“This £2.4 million a year is there just to make the SNP Government look better. It allows the SNP to trumpet that more and more patients are being registered with dentists – but it doesn’t mean any more patients are being treated by dentists.

“NHS dentists in Scotland warn that this change will undermine the importance of regular check ups, and most alarmingly of all, they warn this change will increase the chances of serious conditions such as mouth cancer going undetected.

“I am astonished that the other opposition parties have also voted to put SNP propaganda ahead of patient care. We need to scrap this pointless and costly measure as soon as we can.”