Elinor Jayne on why Sue Ryder Care will pressure politicians to deliver their manifesto promises on better care for Scots with neurological condition
It’s difficult to believe that it’s only a week to go until the Scottish Parliament elections. For many the election period drags and seems to go on and on, but for us at Sue Ryder it’s passing in a flash.
That’s because we’ve been working hard to get care for people with neurological conditions – like Parkinson’s, motor neurone disease and stroke – up the political agenda while the parties and candidates compete for our votes. And we are making good progress with candidates continuing to sign up.
We’ve not only got support from candidates from across the political spectrum, care for people with neurological conditions is in party manifestos. This is a significant achievement as few conditions other than the big diseases such as cancer ever making it into party manifestos.
The SNP said it will support “treatment of patients with neurological conditions” and the Labour Party went even further, saying it would provide “dedicated neurological care and support services... delivered by specialists who understand these complex conditions”. It also said it would “re-write the standards for neurological care to place people who use health and social care services at the centre of the work they do, allowing people to live life as fully as possible”. If you are a Rewrite the Future supporter this wording will sound familiar.
The Conservatives and Lib Dems have also set out their commitments to specialist services.
So, is that job done? Can we expect the new Scottish Government – made up of whatever political stripes – to get cracking and deliver much needed specialist care and support for people with neurological conditions?
Well, let’s not pretend it's that easy. A commitment in a manifesto is very different to real change on the ground. Whoever is elected next week needs to build on that initial commitment and work out how on earth they are going to deliver it.
So whatever the outcome next week, we’ll be working with those newly elected MSPs who pledged their support for our campaign to really shift a gear and get the Scottish Government to take action. What we need now is true leadership from the Scottish Government and for them to work in partnership with people with neurological conditions, organisations like us in the third sector who have real experience of specialist care, and with the health and social care sectors. That is the only way we’ll be able to see proper specialist care and support designed round people’s needs, to support them in living life as fully as possible and to not feel written off.
So, while we’ve made good progress, from 6 May 2016 we need to see a whole lot more. In the meantime, please ask your Scottish parliamentary candidates to Rewrite the Future.
Elinor Jayne is Sue Ryder's policy and public affairs manager in Scotland
