MSP ‘Astounded’ by NHS Decision on Fraserburgh Dental Crisis

Local SNP MSP Stewart Stevenson today expressed his serious concerns that constituents may be denied the full potential for NHS treatment at a new dental surgery planned for Fraserburgh.

Fraserburgh businessmen George Jack and Alex Watt have submitted proposals for a state-of-the-art dental surgery in Albert Street, and had sought funding from the Scottish Dental Access Initiative which would allow the practice to concentrate on dealing primarily with NHS patients. Two qualified dentists and a dental technician from Poland are to join the practice, which may now be forced to concentrate on treating private patients in the first instance.

NHS Grampian, despite their enthusiasm during the months that the project has been under discussion and supplying a letter of endorsement which categorically stated that ‘there is a severe shortage of dentists in Grampian’, suddenly reneged on their support for the project at the eleventh hour.

In a shock letter despatched on the day that he left on annual leave, the NHS Grampian Special Projects Manager withdrew his support for the proposal, citing various measures and plans by other dental surgeries in the area which were allegedly planned to resolve the shortfall in the provision of NHS treatment in the area.

Just ten working days from a letter which admitted ‘we currently have over 15,000 on our centralised waiting list’, NHS Grampian alleged that they ‘have less than 260 patients on the overall waiting list from that area.’ Dental practices in the Fraserburgh area, which include that of NHS Grampian’s Dental Practice Advisor, have previously admitted to ongoing recruitment difficulties.

The matter was taken up by Banff & Buchan MSP, Stewart Stevenson, who has been extremely vocal in calling for urgent measures to be taken to address the shortfall in NHS dental provision in Grampian. On challenging the withdrawal of support with Chief Executive, Richard Carey, NHS Grampian changed the reasons given, citing instead that the proposed corporate structure of the practice precluded their support as it did not comply with the conditions of the Scottish Dental Access Initiative.

Speaking at a Press conference in Aberdeen, Stewart Stevenson said:

“At a time when the provision of NHS dentistry is in total chaos, I am astounded to hear of this volte face on the part of NHS Grampian. The excuses set out in their original letter notifying their withdrawal of support simply beggar belief. It would appear that, either NHS Grampian has been totally unaware of the extent of the NHS dental crisis in the recent years in which they have supposedly been dealing with it – or else we are being asked to believe that they have suddenly managed to make provision to resolve the problem in the Fraserburgh area.”

Speaking on behalf of the new practice, Fraserburgh businessman George Jack said:

“We have been in regular contact with NHS Grampian since the inception of this project, and have kept them fully informed of our proposals at all times.

“This project will ultimately result in our investment of over a third of a million pounds. I was therefore extremely dismayed to learn of their withdrawal of NHS Grampian’s support for our application. It had been our intention to concentrate on the provision of NHS treatment in Fraserburgh, but it would appear that this capacity will now be limited in scope by the need to concentrate on the more lucrative area of private treatment.”

Stewart Stevenson added:

“While certain conditions may well need to be applied to the corporate structure of applicants, it must be questioned whether those presently in force are entirely suitable for a modern age - or are conducive to encouraging an effective resolution to the serious dental crisis which this country is currently facing, and I will be raising these issues with the Scottish Minister for Health directly.

“I would be bitterly disappointed if this was to mean that the people of Fraserburgh were to be denied the opportunity to access the additional good quality NHS dental treatment which could be made available in the very near future.”
Categories [Health and Community Care]

MSP Seeks Further Assurances From Finnie On Cattle Convictions

Banff & Buchan SNP MSP Stewart Stevenson has raised further questions in Parliament following the Scottish Executive’s admission that farmers across Scotland were convicted of breaking cattle movement laws which did not exist.

Twenty-four farmers were convicted and have had their convictions quashed and fines repaid. However, questions arose over the implications of this ruling for those who had faced subsidy penalties for not complying with the non-existent regulations, and those who had been convicted during the reference period for the single farm payment.

Mr Stevenson tabled further questions in the Scottish Parliament. Rural Affairs Minister Ross Finnie has stated that his officials are taking legal advice on the matter, but has confirmed that if his advice is that support scheme payments were affected, then the Government would move to reverse the penalties which had been applied.

Mr Stevenson commented:

“The fact that SEERAD are having to spend so long taking legal advice on the matter is further evidence of the whole bureaucratic nightmare which farmers have to contend with. One would have thought it would be a relatively simple matter to work out how subsidy payments had been affected by applying penalties for breaking non-existent laws.

“I shall be keeping a close eye on the Government’s progress in clearing up this mess.

“This just goes to show that the whole system is a house of cards and is in need of urgent reform to become more user-friendly for farmers. I am confident that an SNP Government after next May under Alex Salmond’s leadership will give urgent attention to reforming measures which will reduce red tape.”
Categories [Environment and Rural Development]

Film catches a fishing tragedy - The Observer

Behind a lauded screen drama about people-smuggling is the reality of desperate Scottish trawler communities struggling to survive

Thomas Quinn
Sunday October 1, 2006
The Observer

Generations of fishermen from north-east Scotland have battled wind, high seas, rain and icy temperatures. Yet in recent years it has not been the forces of nature that reduced their trawlers to scrap but a government decommissioning programme and the European Union Common Fisheries Policy.

A new Scottish film highlighting the personal cost of this upheaval will be screened for the first time in Scotland this week after winning plaudits at the Toronto Film Festival.

In True North, Gary Lewis plays a trawler skipper facing financial ruin and the loss of his boat. His son, played by Martin Compston, who was in Ken Loach's film Sweet Sixteen, and his first mate, played by Peter Mullan, try to put things right by agreeing to smuggle 20 Chinese workers across the North Sea to Britain from Belgium.

The scheme leads to tragedy, but it is the plight faced by the main characters that strikes a chord. Written and directed by Steve Hudson, the film is in the running for a Scottish Bafta.

'It is bang up to date. You could write the script tomorrow,' said Lewis. 'You feel the fishermen are under siege because they are losing money, whatever they do or however hard they work.

'What struck me most was how emotionally connected these men are to their boats. That isn't some poetic abstract for them. I spoke to one skipper and he talked about launching his trawler in the way a father might talk about the birth of his son. It's that strong a feeling.'

Glasgow-born Lewis, who has played tough, uncompromising working-class men in films such as Billy Elliot and Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York, was amazed by the physical demands fishermen are under.

'I only spent a day on a fishing boat, but having done that I can appreciate just what hard graft it is,' he said. 'It struck me they are the one industry where the workers are never alienated from their product. They are involved at every stage, from kitting the boat out, paying for the boat, catching and gutting the fish, landing it and selling it in the market. No wonder there's such a strong attachment to the job.

'Obviously there are issues about over-fishing, and I accept there has to be some monitoring and control, but the cost to some of these people is high. What my character and his son in True North do is down to a need for raw survival.'

Many fishing communities are fighting for that sort of survival in real-life in north-east Scotland. To meet EU white fish quotas, around 1,000 boats have been decommissioned and as many as 5,000 fishermen forced out of the industry. Coastal communities such as Peterhead and Fraserburgh have changed for ever.

'It's not just the fishermen who are affected. We've lost many businesses too, including butchers who specialised in supplying the boats,' said the area's MSP, Stewart Stevenson, of the SNP.

He gives limited support to a Scottish Executive-led action plan announced last week to develop the industry north of the border. The measures will include new marketing, processing and catching initiatives involving everyone from the fishermen themselves to retailers such as Marks & Spencer.

'It is doing something worthwhile but it could go further,' Stevenson said. 'It's meant to show the fish are coming from sustainable stocks - but they could also look to identify actual trawlers where the fish are sourced.'

The real issue, he and his party claim, is that Scotland's interests are not properly represented by a UK government which does not consider fishing a priority. As a result, the Scottish share of European fishing rights is smaller than it should be.

Morag Ritchie, one of the so-called Fraserburgh fishwives who spearheaded the Cod Crusaders, a high-profile campaign against decommissioning and for Britain to free itself from the Common Fisheries Policy, says they have been defeated. Despite raising a petition with more than 250,000 signatures, including that of Sean Connery, the Westminster government confirmed last month that it will not consider ending Britain's part in the policy.

'The fleet is far smaller now and the boats that have survived have seen an increase in prices this year, and that's helped them,' Ritchie said. 'But they are still fighting all the time - against increased fuel costs and the quota system. The fishermen don't agree with the scientists who say fish stocks are low. They know it's better than it has been in decades.'

The emotional bond fishing people have with the sea is strong. 'Your crew is like part of your family. These men work together, eat together and sleep together. Once they are on shore they socialise together. These are very close knit communities.

'Most Scottish boats are family-owned and are named after personal things and people, your children for example. The transition for some of the fishermen has been extremely difficult - it's led to many families breaking up. The fishermen are used to being at sea. If they are stuck at home they don't know what to do. They haven't got hobbies.'

Some take to drink and drugs. The use of heroin in some of these communities is said to be high, though Ritchie insists that Fraserburgh's problem is no worse than that in other small towns.

The real tragedy is that traditions are being lost, she said. 'Boys who thought they would skipper their father's boat are now looking elsewhere for jobs, many of them on the oil [rigs]. Families are moving out, and in Fraserburgh we are getting a lot of immigrants, people from eastern Europe. Things are changing.'