At Tuesday’s topical question time and Thursday’s First Minister’s question time last week, the Cryptococcus infection incident at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth university hospital was the focus of attention. On Tuesday, responding to Monica Lennon, Jeane Freeman, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport, revealed that the source of the infection was pigeons getting into a plant room on the 12th floor of the building. She announced that a review would be set up, the remit for which would be made available by the end of the week.
Topical Question time (Cryptococcus infection) (22 Jan 2019)
First Minister’s Question Time (24 Jan 2019)
It was a busy week for Ms Freeman. On Wednesday, she gave the chamber an update on the situation as regards clinical waste services for the NHS in Scotland following the ceasing of operations of the Shotts-based Healthcare Environmental Services, while on Thursday she gave evidence to the Public Petitions Committee on three health-related petitions: one on access to glucose monitoring for people with type 1 diabetes; one on MRI scans for ocular melanoma sufferers; and one on the treatment of people with ME.
Ministerial statement (clinical waste services) (23 Jan 2019)
Public Petitions Committee (24 Jan 2019)
On Wednesday, the Local Government and Communities Committee heard from Rosemary Agnew, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, on the ombudsman’s annual report and accounts. Ms Agnew spoke of her desire
“to lead the way with a modern ombudsman service”,
but expressed frustration about the lack of progress on giving people the ability to make a complaint “in any format”. She also talked of her desire for the SPSO to have the power to launch its own investigations, as ombudsmen in other countries do.
Local Government and Communities Committee (23 Jan 2019)
At Thursday lunch time, Richard Lyle led the annual members’ business debate on Holocaust memorial day. In a powerful speech, Adam Tomkins quoted Primo Levi asking, with amazement, in his autobiographical account of the Holocaust,
“how can one hit a man without anger?”,
and concluded
“There is plenty of room in politics for emotion, for frenzy and even for anger, but not for hatred … Let that, for us, be the lesson of the Holocaust.”
Several members paid tribute to the outstanding heroism and humanity of particular individuals: Gillian Martin spoke of the paediatrician, journalist and children’s author, Dr Janusz Korczak; Ross Greer highlighted the role of Mordechai Anielewicz, who led the Warsaw ghetto uprising; and Annabelle Ewing singled out for praise the young Polish social worker Irena Sendler, who saved 2,500 children over a period of four years.
Scottish Parliament Official Report 