Scottish Government Debate: The Women’s Health Plan 2021- 2024 – Progress and Next Steps

Jenni Minto S6M-15382 That the Parliament acknowledges the longstanding health inequalities faced by women and believes that it is vital that services and health outcomes are improved for women and girls; notes the progress made through implementation of the Women’s Health Plan as a first step towards addressing these inequalities, in particular the appointment and work of the first Women’s Health Champion; thanks hard-working NHS staff and all those who have contributed to the progress to date; welcomes the commitment from the Scottish Government to work with women and girls across Scotland in developing the next iteration of the plan, and thanks everyone who has contributed their lived experience to the priorities of the Women’s Health Plan. Annie Wells S6M-15382.1 As an amendment to motion S6M-15382 in the name of Jenni Minto (The Women’s Health Plan 2021-2024 – Progress and Next Steps), leave out from “acknowledges” to end and insert “agrees that 17 years of Scottish National Party (SNP) administration mismanagement of healthcare in Scotland has worsened longstanding health inequalities faced by women and girls, while challenges facing women’s health services continue to go unaddressed; notes that thousands of women across Scotland have missed out on life-saving screenings for breast and cervical cancer, and that some breast cancer screening centres are at risk of being downgraded or closed entirely under drastic NHS budget cuts by the Scottish Government; further notes that women in the west of Scotland have been forced to pay for their own ovarian cancer treatment due to long and unacceptably high delays; believes that the Scottish Government has failed to recognise and address the underlying preventable factors that contribute to poor mental health for women and girls; notes that the SNP administration made the decision to cut the mental health budget by nearly £20 million for 2024-25, despite the number of people in Scotland who reported to have a mental health condition doubling between 2011 and 2022; acknowledges that women’s life expectancy is lower than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic, with Scotland ranked 22 out of 29 European nations for female lifespan in the 10 years up to 2022; urges the Scottish Government to restore the provision of consultant-led maternity services in rural areas, such as Moray and Caithness, so that women are no longer forced to travel hundreds of miles away from home to give birth; believes that the Scottish Government should abandon its proposed centralisation plans for specialist neonatal units in NHS Scotland, which includes downgrading services at University Hospital Wishaw, Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, and Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, potentially endangering the lives of vulnerable babies and placing additional stress on new and expectant mothers alike; calls on the Scottish Government to prioritise women’s reproductive health, as it currently takes an average of 8.5 years for a woman to get an official diagnosis for endometriosis, despite the fact that one in 10 women in Scotland live with this debilitating condition; believes that the Scottish Government should take steps to reduce cardiology waiting lists, which are at a record high in Scotland, as women are more likely than men to receive the wrong cardiac diagnosis and will receive half as many heart treatments; criticises the SNP administration for continuing to put gender ideology before the safety of women and girls by backing Rape Crisis Scotland, despite an independent review discovering that survivors were being let down, and calls on the Scottish Government to address the specific healthcare needs of women, ensuring that Scotland’s NHS is efficient, reliable and accessible for all women, always.” Carol Mochan S6M-15382.2 As an amendment to motion S6M-15382 in the name of Jenni Minto (The Women’s Health Plan 2021-2024 – Progress and Next Steps), insert at end "; is concerned by the slow progress in addressing stubbornly high health inequalities experienced by women, and calls on the Scottish Government to ensure that the next plan sets out concisely when and how each of its actions will be fully implemented across Scotland."