Debate: Standing up for NHS Staff and Patients

That the Parliament has serious concerns about governance, leadership, performance and financial sustainability within the health service, noting that six territorial NHS boards are at level three or higher on the performance escalation framework; notes the forthcoming public inquiry into the scandals in NHS Lothian and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde; considers that challenges and risks within the NHS are not being satisfactorily addressed by the Scottish Government, to the detriment of patients and NHS staff; pays tribute to NHS staff for their dedication to patient care and is worried that more than half of doctors and nurses surveyed by BMA Scotland and RCN Scotland link heavy workloads to negative impacts on their own health; believes that the Scottish Government must be more transparent on its stewardship of the NHS, in accordance with Open Government principles, and that the culture of secrecy must end; calls on the Scottish Government to ensure that ministers are accountable to the public and staff through the chairing of annual health board meetings, and agrees that the Parliament should have the power to take evidence from all departing health board chief executives and chairpersons.