I

thank the minister, the Scottish Government bill team, the Scottish Parliament legislation team and the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee and its clerks for all their work on the bill.

Scottish Labour has long supported the establishment of a patient safety commissioner to champion the rights of patients and to defend their interests. However, we have been clear that we want the bill to be as robust as possible when it comes to defending those rights and interests, and that the rights of bereaved families must be clearly stated in it. Recent patient scandals on the Scottish Government’s watch have, in many instances, eroded confidence in the operation and accountability of our NHS. That is bad for patients and for clinicians and staff, and, ultimately, it reduces trust in health board governance structures.

The amendments that Scottish Labour members lodged presented an opportunity to reset the balance between patients, whistleblowers, families and powerful public bodies. I am therefore genuinely dismayed that the Scottish Government has not adopted the full package of amendments that make up Milly’s law. Those amendments could have ensured that bereaved families were very much at the heart of the response to disasters and public scandals in the bill.

Although I am grateful for the Scottish Government’s co-operation on two of my nine amendments regarding the provision of a patient safety charter in the bill, I am sorely disappointed that the SNP and the Greens have once again voted down amendments that would have delivered Milly’s law in full. That is a betrayal of the very people to whom this bill was supposed to give voice. That includes people such as Louise Slorance, a grieving widow who lost her husband in the Queen Elizabeth hospital infection scandal, and who Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board paid a private company to spy on. It includes people such as the families who lost their loved ones in the Clostridium difficile scandal at the Vale of Leven hospital, and who had to fight tooth and nail for years to get justice out of this Government. It includes people such as Professor John Cuddihy, whose daughter Molly nearly died after she fell ill at the Queen Elizabeth university hospital and went into septic shock. It includes the patients in NHS Tayside who were operated on by Sam Eljamel, and the women who were affected by the problems with mesh. The minister could have done more.

The NHS in Scotland is in crisis. The Scottish Government is routinely failing patients and staff alike. The state of crisis and the lack of resource that the NHS is facing has an undeniable effect on patient safety. My amendments sought to ensure that the patient safety commissioner for Scotland would have a duty to advocate for those who are affected by a major incident in relation to the safety of healthcare. The amendments would have provided patients and family members with information relating to sources of support, including information on accessing legal support and details of any investigations or inquiries, placing them at the heart of the fight for justice and ensuring that they were never left in the dark again. However, the Government did not accept those amendments.

I have said this before, but it is worth repeating. Milly Main’s mother, Kimberly Darroch, said:

“Right now, the system is stacked against those who have questions about what happened to their loved ones—that can’t be right … We are looking to our parliament to put measures in place so that nobody has to go through what we went through ever again.”

I fear that, when Kimberly, Louise, John and others look at what was voted on in the chamber tonight, they will feel that the system still remains stacked against families, and whistleblowers, who have to fight to be heard. The bill was an opportunity to reset the balance and to put the interests of patients and families first—what a shame that the SNP has turned its back on doing that.

In addition, it is inexplicable that, although the First Minister would express his support for Milly’s law in public, on the record, his Government simply does not vote for it, given the opportunity. Was he even voting today, or has he run away?

Although Scottish Labour will vote for the Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland Bill, because it is a step in the right direction, we do so with regret that the SNP has chosen not to truly champion the rights and defend the interests of patients—shame on them.