MP Jamie Stone says Highland healthcare has been 'gutted' by centralisation

The far north Liberal Democrat MP brought the first adjournment debate of the new parliamentary term on access to rural healthcare

Transcript

00:00We are here to discuss the adequacy of healthcare services in rural areas. For fear of being

00:08very predictable, I am afraid to say, as you can imagine, that health services in the Highlands

00:12are not at all—in fact, they are not even faintly adequate. Let me give you some examples.

00:17Of course, I recognise that health is devolved, but I have to say that 17 years of centralisation

00:24has wreaked havoc on my part of the world. Health services have been stripped back and

00:29gutted, leaving my constituents with access to far too few local services.