Delivering on our dentistry promises

Access to an NHS dentist is something that should be available to all who need it. It is a principle that is important to the SNP, but one that for too long before last May’s election was neglected. In Banff & Buchan, and indeed across the North East, the level of access residents enjoyed to an NHS dentist was woefully poor.

Good dental hygiene, particularly for children, is something that is vital to everyone’s health and wellbeing. That is why I am delighted that the period since the SNP government came to power has seen a marked increase in the level of access to an NHS dentist that people across Scotland enjoy. In Banff & Buchan alone, the level of access has risen 6.4% with 4976 more people now registered with an NHS dentist.

Public Health Minister Shona Robison recently joined the first students to enrol at the new £21 million dental school in Aberdeen. This school will see 20 extra dentists qualify in Scotland every year. Incentives will be put in place to ensure that they enter the NHS when they graduate and I am confident this will have a positive impact on the various challenges that have faced dentistry in the North East in recent years.

The Scottish Government are delivering on our election commitments and tackling the problems in dentistry in the North East after many years of neglect. I am proud that we are living up to our promises and I am sure that this will be welcomed by people across the region.

A triumph of hope over fear

Congratulations to Barack Obama on being elected to serve as the 44th President of the United States of America. I agree with the First Minister who described the victory as a "a victory for optimism over pessimism, for hope over fear". I think for the first time in the lifetimes of most of us, there is a real sense of expectation that the leadership of the free world is in the hands of someone who wants to set a direct action of change.

Mr Obama was kind enough to send a message of support to the Scottish Government in April for the Tartan Day and Scotland Week celebrations in the US earlier this year pointing out his own Scottish ancestry. Mr Obama joins at least eleven previous US Presidents in having Scottish descent. So it seems there's another Scot in the White House and that must be a good thing!