Category: Uncategorized

 

Labour has pressed the Scottish government to bring forward a statutory right to food.

 

Labour Highlands & Islands Regional MSP Rhoda Grant pressed the government to outline when a proposed Good Food Nation bill would finally be brought forward.

 

The MSP is also writing to foodbank organisations across Scotland to ensure they take steps to make their users’ voices heard.

 

Rhoda Grant said:

 

“We live in a developed nation in the 21st century and it is a national scandal that foodbank use is increasing year upon year upon year. Scottish Labour believe that there should be a statutory right to food, which brings together all of the current policies, gives them a guiding force, and has the power to measure the government’s success in feeding its people. In developing legislation, we believe that people who are most affected by food insecurity should have the opportunity to contribute to how the government can make things better.

“However, we accept that this is challenging, as those most affected by food insecurity tend to be the most marginalised and vulnerable people in society, who are unlikely to have their voice heard.

“I am writing to foodbank organisations in Scotland to find out whether they have any plans to make service users aware of the consultation, and how they are supporting them in submitting their views to the outcome of the consultation.

“While I understand that engaging with the government’s legislative process is not going to be the first thing on people’s minds when visiting foodbanks, I think that it is important that we listen to people who are most affected by the issues discussed, and take account of their views”

 

ENDS

 

Notes to editors

 

Labour’s secured a Parliamentary victory on 13 September 2018 on creating a right to food.

 

Text of Labour amendment:

 

“Calls for a Good Food Nation Bill that has tackling food poverty and the Right to Food at its heart, ensuring a joined-up approach across Government, local authorities, trade unions and public bodies to realise our Good Food Nation ambition.”

 

http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=11657&i=105646&c=2109722#ScotParlOR

 

 

 

 

Highlands & Islands Regional MSP Rhoda Grant was concerned to learn that five patients travel from Skye to Raigmore Hospital three times a week for kidney dialysis treatment.

When a patient’s kidneys fail, dialysis treatment keeps the body in balance by removing waste, salt and extra water to prevent them from building up in the body.

The MSP communicated with the Elaine Mead, Chief Executive of NHS Highland to ask if they had considered installing one dialysis machine into Broadford Hospital for the use of locally based patients. In the response Rhoda Grant was advised that up until two years ago nobody was requiring haemodialysis in the area. They concluded that they were trying to find a local solution to respond to the current need.

Rhoda Grant said: “Patients traveling from Skye three times a week to Raigmore Hospital for treatment is not acceptable in this day and age. This is a particularly long journey to make and also expensive for those having to travel and NHS Highland with regard to expenses. I understand that this is a challenging situation for NHS Highland to address given the fluctuations in demand for such services in the Isle of Skye, but I would have thought having a dialysis machine located in Boardford Hospital would be the answer.”

Highlands & Islands Regional MSP Rhoda Grant was concerned to learn that five patients travel from Skye to Raigmore Hospital three times a week for kidney dialysis treatment.

When a patient’s kidneys fail, dialysis treatment keeps the body in balance by removing waste, salt and extra water to prevent them from building up in the body.

The MSP communicated with the Elaine Mead, Chief Executive of NHS Highland to ask if they had considered installing one dialysis machine into Broadford Hospital for the use of locally based patients. In the response Rhoda Grant was advised that up until two years ago nobody was requiring haemodialysis in the area. They concluded that they were trying to find a local solution to respond to the current need.

Rhoda Grant said: “Patients traveling from Skye three times a week to Raigmore Hospital for treatment is not acceptable in this day and age. This is a particularly long journey to make and also expensive for those having to travel and NHS Highland with regard to expenses. I understand that this is a challenging situation for NHS Highland to address given the fluctuations in demand for such services in the Isle of Skye, but I would have thought having a dialysis machine located in Boardford Hospital would be the answer.”

Highlands & Islands MSP, Rhoda Grant, welcomes the news that the Ocean Great White rig,  en-route from Singapore to the Kishorn Yard in Wester Ross is the start of a new engagement between the yard and the oil and gas sector. The yard which has been dormant for a while was last in use in the 1990s when the support structures for the Skye Bridge were built there. In 1978 the Kishorn Yard was utilised in the construction of the largest moveable man made structure in the world when the Ninian Central platform was build. At that time up to 4000 people were employed on the site.

 

Rhoda said ” This is excellent news and I hope this first major contract will herald a new beginning for the Kishorn Port which was a company formed in 2008 by Ferguson Transport and Leith’s Scotland. As well as the building of the iconic Ninian Central, other smaller projects were undertaken, but this is the first major contract for 40 years. If the senior Management at Kishorn Port can attract contracts such as this ,then there is a real possibility that the local economy around the scattered communities of Wester Ross will prosper again with new found jobs, which in turn attract more workers and then more money is spent in the area locally.

 

” This is positive news and further supports my plea some months ago for the upgrade of the road that extends between Achnasheen and Kishorn (A890/A896). If we are to promote the availability of this location as a future specialist refurbishment yard for the oil and gas sector we have to do something about the infrastructure, starting with the roads.

 

The rig is being made ready for a drilling programme early next year West of Shetland.

 

 

 

 

Highlands & Islands Regional MSP, Rhoda Grant asked The Cabinet Secretary for Government Business and Constitutional Relations, Mike Russell MSP, during the Brexit statement in the Scottish Parliament yesterday, (18th December) what plans they had for opening up new freight routes to the continent for Scottish produce in the event of a No Deal Brexit. She went on to ask which Ports and routes are the Scottish Government looking at as alternatives to Dover and  what boats are they hoping to procure given they cannot find boats to fulfil their own routes and services?

 

The Cabinet Secretary advised that the Government would have no trouble finding boats as they were different to the ones required for the Western Isles and easily found.

 

Rhoda Grant said “ This is rather ironic. The boat we asked for to cover the Western Isles route from Ullapool to Stornoway was a freight ferry which would in turn free up the Loch Seaforth as a passenger ferry.

 

“It would appear when there is a need for a freight vessel to be found to provide lifeline services to the Western Isles, a ferry cannot be found. However, when we require to move freight to the continent from Scotland, that’s no bother and a number can easily be found. This just shows the level of regard the Scottish Government have for the needs of the economy in the Western Isles.

 

Rhoda Grant concluded “While they are right to make contingencies for a No Deal Brexit and getting our produce to Europe, I would expect them to have the same regard for our fragile island communities who need reliable and accessible lifeline services.

 

 

Delighted to meet with and talk through the role of MSPs with the 2nd Inverness (Kingsmills) Scout Group

 

Motion Number: S5M-14757
Lodged By: Rhoda Grant
Date Lodged: 14/11/2018

Title: Marion Wallace Dunlop

Motion Text:

That the Parliament acknowledges the role played by Inverness-born, Marion Wallace Dunlop, a key member of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), and the first suffragette hunger striker; notes that Marion was arrested in 1909 after using a rubber stamp to print the words “Votes for Women” on a wall of St Stephen’s Hall in the House of Commons; understands that she was jailed at Holloway Prison for her actions and went on hunger strike for the suffragette cause; acknowledges her strenuous work in securing women the vote, and is pleased to note that she is being remembered this week as part of Parliament Week at Westminster.

You may remember Inverness constituent Mary Ramsay who has Essential Tremor and is campaigning to get ground breaking technology brought to Scotland – ideally to Ninewells Hospital.
The Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) technology uses MRI imaging to guide high powered, focused ultrasound to a very small point to alleviate conditions with tremor.
Molecules are vibrated extremely quickly, which creates intense local heat. The equipment allows clinicians to target a very specific focal point – with very little heating produced in front of and behind that point, so only the targeted tissue is affected.
A surgery team at Imperial Healthcare NHS Trust, London, already uses the equipment and has performed this procedure on 16 patients successfully reducing their tremors in every case.
The National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) has assessed this technology. It has been approved for the treatment of essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease in the USA and in Europe.
Mary has now launched a petition (see link below) and is currently lodging another petition with the Scottish Parliament’s Public Petitions Committee.
Please sign this to help bring this to Scotland.

Photo shows Rhoda with Mary

https://tinyurl.com/yaugwzhx

To read more about this click here