MS affects 11, of our fellow Scots. As we have heard, it is a condition that impacts them not just physically, but mentally and socially. We in this chamber should listen to the voices of those, like Sharon, who live with MS, and we should learn what they need to make their lives easier. To have had a service based on one individual is not sustainable, as was evidenced when the one and only MS nurse in the area resigned her post.
While I have been reassured that NHS Lanarkshire is looking to recruit two nurses, with the second post initially being funded by the MS Trust , that still leaves a gap in provision in Lanarkshire until those nurses are in place. However, both nurses will be paid at band 6, while MS Trust nurses throughout the UK are paid at band 7. The previous MS nurse in Lanarkshire had a case load of around 1,, as we have already heard, while the MS Society says that a case load of around is more realistic.
Having two nurses in the service will still not be enough to meet the needs of people with MS in Lanarkshire, but it is at least an improvement. For MS nurses to have career progression and for there to be succession planning in the field, health boards must look at their skills mix in such services and make them sustainable, so that they continue to be able to provide the service that those with MS deserve.
Thank you very much. Ms Haughey, if I looked a bit distracted it was because a member had not pressed their request-to-speak button and they have now done so. I am not naming you, Mr Finnie. I call Monica Lennon , to be followed by Mr Finnie, who has now pressed his button. I begin by thanking George Adam and paying tribute to him for the way in which he has championed the MS community.
Sometimes, it feels as though MS awareness week happens more than once a year—although Paisley and St Mirren get an awareness day on every day that George Adam is in Parliament. That is not because of what has emerged in the. Daily Record this week, which was very upsetting for me, because Emma Smith is a friend. I am among the first to defend the NHS—not just the people in the front line, but the big bosses too, because they have difficult jobs to do.
However, I was very upset, on behalf of constituents of mine, who were themselves very upset that, in making remarks to try to reassure the public that it is taking every step possible, the NHS spokesperson had a go and accused unnamed people of scaremongering and raising anxiety.
After that, I soon received phone calls from MS patients in my area. I emailed NHS Lanarkshire, and it has promptly replied. I want to say this so that any patients who have been speaking out and speaking to MSPs know that NHS Lanarkshire says that the comment was not aimed at them and that it apologises to any patients who have been offended.
Several patients have been speaking to me, and they are content for me to share their testimonies, but I will not do that and I will not name them. We have seen one newspaper story and I do not want people to feel concerned that they cannot speak out. It is clear to me that everyone in Lanarkshire who has been a patient of the nurse who recently resigned has nothing but the highest praise for her.
We certainly wish her well and we are pleased that she will remain in the MS community. However, it is not acceptable that things got to this stage. There seems to have been an awful lot of defensiveness and secrecy from NHS Lanarkshire. I have talked to the MS Society a few times this week, because it has a stall in the Parliament, which is great, and I understand that people are still concerned about the issue.
I hope that in her closing speech the minister will pick up on some of the genuine concerns and anxieties that people have.
Of course, this week is about celebrating MS nurses and raising awareness. Other members have done that effectively. We need to see the person, rather than just the illness. This morning, it was fortunate that the MS Society stall was right outside a meeting room in the garden lobby, because I had to greet—at quite short notice—a group of young people and their teachers who were visiting from Sweden.
The students asked me about a typical day in the Parliament and what I was doing today, and I was able to point to the MS Society stall and explain that this is an open Parliament, where people can come and talk to MSPs and lobby them, and where we can come together to have a debate such as this one in which we celebrate the fantastic work that our MS nurses do.
We need more MS nurses. I hope that the minister will take that on board, because I thank George Adam again for bringing this debate to the chamber. I hope to be able to contribute to such debates in years to come and I wish George and Stacey a happy anniversary, when it comes.
I call John Finnie. Please do not take my earlier remarks badly, Mr Finnie. I forgot to put my card in the console, so I did worse than you. Thank you, Presiding Officer. The one way to guarantee that the sun will go away is to move out of the sun—that is why I had moved seats. I apologise for that. I congratulate George Adam on a number of things: on the motion; on his role in the cross-party group on MS, which works effectively with the assistance of the MS Society ; on his promotion of the positive aspects of dealing with the pernicious thing that is MS; and on his generally positive outlook, which I imagine is an essential characteristic of the St Mirren fan.
I wish him—if not his team—very well. To many people in the chamber, and to about 11, people in Scotland, their carers and loved ones, MS is never off the agenda. I had forgotten that we did not have a debate last year, because such debates seem to have been a regular feature, but I have been reflecting on what might have happened to people in the past year, given the undulating nature of the condition, which George described very well. There is no doubt that the welfare reform that the cruel and heartless Tory Government at Westminster has foisted on us has had an impact on everyone, not least the woman in the article, whose car was one of the Motability cars that are being taken away every week.
That is the economics of the madhouse. The decision is deeply offensive to the woman in question, and it shows a heartlessness that we really do not want to see. What we want to see, of course, is independence and mobility. There are many practical issues in that regard, with which I deal regularly, as I am sure that other members do.
I was keen to support the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers case against driver-only operation and the loss of the safety-critical train guard, particularly when I heard that wheelchair-bound people are often carried beyond their stop because there is no assistance for them. The problem was eloquently explained to me by Gale Falconer, a friend in the Highlands who is an MS sufferer. In a meeting, she described the frustrations of travel, the planning that needs to go into it and the advice and support that are needed.
I am also dealing with someone with mobility issues in relation to the repeated failure of a lift at a ferry terminal. If we want to take a collaborative approach to the issue, we need to get such small things sorted. There are also challenges to do with bus travel, which are well known. Although I have very limited time, I also want to talk about the challenges of recruiting specialists, be they neurologists or MS nurses.
That has been touched on with regard to the situation in Lanarkshire. I am particularly concerned about the retention of specialist staff given the threat posed by Brexit. There is a lot to be very positive about. Setting aside the partisan nature of some of the amendments that were lodged for that debate, there is a lot of recognition of the real benefit that carers provide.
The motion for this debate commends the charities, MS Society Scotland and the MS Trust , and I know about the good work that is happening across my area. In particular, I am aware of some innovative work in Moray. There is much to be positive about and there are a lot of challenges, but people who suffer from MS need to know that the people in the chamber give them their unqualified support.
Four members still wish to speak. I am therefore minded to accept a motion without notice, under rule 8. I invite George Adam to move a motion without notice. I, too, warmly congratulate my colleague George Adam on his motion and on securing this important debate. He completed the marathon and raised significant funds, and we should all send him our congratulations. During MS week we all have the chance to reflect on the effects of MS, with its 11, sufferers in Scotland; to think about what more action can be taken to help our constituents who suffer MS to manage the symptoms that they deal with on a daily basis; and to think, collectively and collaboratively, about how we can support initiatives on finding a cure for the disease.
Fellow members have already raised the point about support and funding for MS specialist nurses. I wish to draw attention to and raise awareness of that point. Most significantly, I want to support and raise awareness of local grass-roots MS organisations throughout Scotland.
I should declare an interest, in that I am patron of the charity, which has supported individuals with MS for as long as I have been alive—since Centres such as the MS Therapy Centre Lothian do significant, important and meaningful work to support people living with MS by providing a range of support and services across different aspects of their lives. For example, the centres provide oxygen treatment, also known as hyperbaric oxygen therapy, using oxygen tanks.
They also provide physiotherapy, yoga, pilates and other ways of helping those who have MS with self-management. There is increased demand on some of the statutory services that support individuals with MS, and those local grass-roots organisations play a key role.
They include organisations in the third sector and the not-for-profit sector. It is important to raise awareness of the great work that they do and to inquire whether we could do more to support them. Finally, it is important to emphasise and celebrate the great work that is going on at the University of Edinburgh in working towards finding a cure for the disease. Miles Briggs alluded to that. The laboratory and clinical research that it does is pioneering and world leading.
As we all work towards helping individuals, constituents and individuals whom we know who suffer from the disease, we are also trying to work towards a scenario in which we do not just manage the symptoms of this awful disease, but have medical solutions to cure it and alleviate the suffering completely.
I thank George Adam for lodging the motion and allowing us to debate MS in the chamber. I can give witness to the fact that he is ably supported by Mrs Adam. I am also keenly aware of the work of the MS Society Scotland, which acts as the secretariat of the group and has done sterling work in promoting awareness of MS and what we can do, not least this week.
In many debates, especially those about health conditions, members often describe their personal involvement with a certain condition. I find that, given that their contribution is coloured by private or family experience, it is often—or almost always—all the more powerful.
In that vein, I want to talk about my father. My father has suffered from MS for 32 years. He learned that he had the disease in the mids, when knowledge of the condition was still at an early stage. He was diagnosed at the age of 40, which is my age now, so I find myself thinking about him a lot in this debate. I can just about remember him without the disease. I remember playing football in the park with him and having a race with him, but my memory of him for almost all of my life is of his living with MS.
I pay tribute to his courage in living with MS and to his positive and optimistic attitude. He has never let it get him down, and I have never heard him complain. What have I learned from that experience? I have learned that, like other diseases, MS of course affects the person who has it, but it also affects other members of the family. I have seen at first hand the effects on my father, his movement and walking and, especially as he gets older, the complications that it has with other conditions or sicknesses.
I have seen the difficulties that he faces in everyday life in filling a car with petrol or travelling on the trains in Scotland. I have seen at first hand that having MS in a rural setting provides its own challenges. Ben Macpherson talked about grass-roots MS organisations. I could not agree with him more.
She will have a case load of people with MS. That case load for a 0. Such a nurse also needs professional development. There are other pressures. The need for neurological conditions to move up the list of priorities for integration joint boards has been raised in the cross-party group. Integration is too often about governance, structures, finance and strategy. We must quickly also start to concentrate on specific conditions and make integration work in practice. MS affects 11, people in Scotland and three times as many women as men.
I have great pleasure in supporting the motion. The issue is very close to my heart. I have grown up with the disease, lived with it and watched it, and I now find myself explaining to my children why their grandfather cannot walk. He is unstintingly optimistic and enjoys life to the full.
I thank him publicly for the example that he has set me in life. He has never been defined by MS. French Historical.
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Is Multiple Sclerosis contagious? The emphasis is on life enhancing support more than care. We understand that many people with MS lead independent lives and do not need full time care, which is why we made our live-in home support service as flexible and personalised as possible.
Our support is available for as long or as little as necessary - we offer everything from short respite services to longer term 24 hour round the clock support. Our flexible holiday service enables our clients to enjoy a well-deserved trip — taking a carer with them, or allowing a family carer to take a much needed break. Care can be booked for a minimum of 14 days although this can be split into smaller chunks, enabling clients to enjoy long weekends away.
Longer services are also available for clients who either want to take a holiday with their loved ones, or who require more care due to family members needing a break or because their symptoms have increased. Permanent care is also available for those who require this. The emphasis is on ensuring that the person with MS retains control and receives a service tailored to their personal preferences.
Retaining dignity and being treated with utmost respect are vital.
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