Priorities emerge from toughest year imaginable - Sarah Boyack

This year has been tougher than any of us could have imagined.

We must ensure adequate PPE for health staff

At the turn of the year there was rightly anxiety about the reality of Brexit and concerns about how that would play out.

But the pandemic has eclipsed that.

We all know the human cost not just in terms of the numbers of deaths or the long term impact on people’s physical health through long COVID. Many won’t be able to see friends and families over the next few weeks.

Going digital doesn’t work for everyone and people with learning difficulties who would normally be using day services like Garvald or Tipereth are missing the human connections that come from making art and music. The tragedy in our care homes has been appalling and the fact that families are still not able to see their relatives is a national scandal.

And the toll from drugs deaths in Scotland has to be a priority now not in years to come. Economic commentators describe the pandemic’s impact as the worst recession in 300 years.

The impact on jobs and the loss of income has thrown people into poverty, and even though we’ve voted in the Parliament to prevent evictions, many people are now racking up debts as they cannot pay their rents. In Edinburgh businesses large and small have been hit, particularly in the hospitality sector, with taxi drivers on the financial edge.

Funding from the SNP Government to our councils was too slow to help businesses and Edinburgh is having to dig into its reserves with growing concerns about next year’s budget. In lockdown the fragility of people’s employment is a huge worry for us all.

Retaining jobs and investing the city’s infrastructure has to be a top priority for 2021. Edinburgh’s housing crisis means we urgently need new homes to be built. There has been fantastic work being done by our councils with local homelessness charities ensuring that people are looked supported. But going forward we need a focus on prevention and more investment in affordable housing in the city.

Communities have supported each other, whether it’s providing food for those who are shielding or on low incomes or who are keeping the services going that we all rely on. People have put their own safety on the line, whether in the NHS, care and council services, in our shops, our posties. Teachers and school staff have kept our schools open, while supporting those who’ve had to study from home.

A briefing from NHS Lothian on the roll-out of the vaccine brought home the scale of the challenge. Over half a million of us will need two doses of the vaccine. The roll out has started, and will continue into January for those in Wave 1 - health and social care workers, adult residents care homes, care home workers, those who are housebound and the over 80’s with the rest of us in the months to come.

Access to PPE for staff who still need to be kept safe, a testing regime that works, keeping people in work and focusing on tackling the inequalities that have deepened during the pandemic. Above all keeping people safe and connected.