Recently, Chamber and IQVIA put on an event to discuss Scotland’s population health challenges and the potential solutions to issues such as growing NHS waiting lists and a lack of innovation within social care.
As part of the event, Ivan McKee delivered a keynote speech to audience members. McKee is a member of the Scottish National Party and has been the MSP for Glasgow Provan since 2016.
Ivan McKee addresses the room
Ivan McKee’s keynote speech was a fantastic way to kickstart the evening and he offered a fresh perspective on the population health challenges that Scotland faces. McKee spoke about the importance of health policy in Scotland, something he says is a “key government focus”. He added:
“In terms of resource allocation, health is frankly the biggest show in town and takes the lion’s share of the budget year on year. One of the biggest challenges at the moment is around tackling waiting lists – I think everybody in the country has a family member or close friend who is on an NHS waiting list which is currently at around 800,000.
“One route out of that is through innovation – how do we use the technology, expertise, and businesses, that we have within Scotland, to be able to address these challenges and how do we roll out solutions at scale and at pace?
“What we do have is a good starting place in terms of our universities. We have some of the best universities in the world across the life science sector and research and development.
“But also, of course, we have many global businesses within Scotland that have helped to attract foreign direct investment within the life sciences which has helped us to create a sector which combines research excellence at universities with dynamic global businesses.”
Taking inspiration from the response to Covid-19
McKee spoke with excitement about the potential of new technology such as artificial intelligence in helping to bring down waiting lists and emphasised heavily on innovation throughout his speech.
However, he conceded that innovation and new technology is relatively worthless if it can’t be rolled out quickly. To combat that, he said we should be inspired by the pandemic. Explaining why, Mckee said:
“I believe we can get there but it requires real cooperation and collaboration across all parts of the sector and everyone involved in this. I believe that requires frankly some of the attitudes that were prevalent during the pandemic when things that seemed impossible were delivered in a matter of weeks when they otherwise would have taken months and years.
“That approach can deliver solutions at the speed required to shift the dial and make a real dent in waiting lists. The importance of data is central to that too as data, when understood properly, can tell us quickly about the successes of new products and innovative services.”
Watch the full video here:
