Torcuil Crichton MP: speeches

Speeches

• 25 Jun 2025 · Haemochromatosis Screening · Hansard source

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  I do not disagree with that. Screening would be revolutionary. It would save money for the NHS in the short term and the long term, and, more important, it would save lives and put us two decades ahead of the rest of the world in preventive medicine. It would be transformative for my constituency. It would be radical, but only as radical as plans to offer every baby in the UK whole genome sequencing within a decade, a plan backed by the Health Secretary. Genomics, like these tests, would put us on the front foot in preventive medicine, as the Minister well knows. Of course it would cost money—£650 million is earmarked for the boost to genomics by the Department of Health and Social Care—but a smaller and more defined pilot scheme to lead the way in preventive medicine is to hand with the samples of high levels of HCT in the Western Isles. Given the given the cost per head of screening, it is logical that starting in the places with the highest rate of faulty genes would be the most cost-effective option. Initially at least, the Bill ought not to go to the national health service. The bill for gene testing in the Western Isles should be part of the community payback for the large-scale wind farm developments that are planned for the islands. There are already negotiations for community benefits, community funds and community shares in the many planned wind farm developments in rural Scotland. The renewables revolution is about saving the planet, but right now the consumer offer is simply to reduce bills. By properly harnessing the wealth of wind, we can not only make communities better off but transform the life chances and health chances of people and their children. The Viking genes results are not limited to haemochromatosis; they also showed high levels of hypercholesterolaemia in the Western Isles. That is simply inherited high cholesterol —a gene fault—that leaves many islanders, and many of my constituents, with high cholesterol and many with heart conditions, which again could be avoided with predictive medicine and early lifestyle and diet changes.

• 25 Jun 2025 · Haemochromatosis Screening · Hansard source

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  I ought to begin with an explanation of what is a very long word. Put simply, haemochromatosis is too much iron in the blood—haemo, blood; chroma, iron; and tosis, too much of it. To save time and the good offices of Hansard , I will refer to it occasionally as HCT in this debate. It is an inherited genetic condition, a disorder often known as the Celtic curse, because it is particularly prevalent in Celtic bloodlines and is common in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. I think it is more probably a Viking phenomenon—an old genetic response to times of famine that we carry into modern times. Untreated haemochromatosis can lead to several common conditions that we might describe as Scottish diseases of ill health: cirrhosis of the liver, heart disease, arthritis and so on. Once spotted, HCT is easily treated by venesection—another long word—which simply means bloodletting. About 450 ml of blood is taken off the patient at each session to chase down the iron levels in the body to normal levels. Generally haemochromatosis is asymptomatic, and without a test to measure for ferritin levels, it can be easily missed. I have a bit of knowledge of the bloodletting side of the business, because for the past 17 years, I have been attending the Knutsford ward at the Royal London hospital on a regular basis for venesection. I am grateful to the staff there for the incredible treatment they have given me, including consultants such as Richard Marley. I am also grateful to my younger brother, Donald, who was tested and found he carried the gene in 2008.

• 16 May 2025 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I thought this was a debate to discuss amendments, not a general debate.

• 7 Jan 2025 · Budget: Scotland · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Vaz. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Livingston (Gregor Poynton) for securing this important debate. I join him in welcoming this record settlement of more than £4 billion for the Scottish Government, but I would not want Members to go away with the impression that the SNP Government are somehow benignly mismanaging the economy, carelessly not controlling the NHS or accidentally running down educational standards in Scotland. They are involved in nothing less than the wilful destruction of the pillars of public life and public services in Scotland, because they are neglecting to make difficult decisions. They are putting off the reckoning that there must be in education; we must leave educationalists to educate and teachers to teach. They are also wilfully neglecting transport in the Western Isles and the west coast, and the health needs of constituents like mine. My hon. Friend the Member for Livingston said that one in six Scots are on waiting lists. My constituents in the Western Isles are not on waiting lists; they are waiting for the sound of a helicopter to take them to hospital, because the NHS does not properly function in the Western Isles thanks to the Scottish Government’s neglect and the lack of resources given to it. In the Western Isles, people do not take an ambulance or a taxi to hospital; they take a bus to an airport, to take a small flight to another airport, to take a flight to a mainland airport, to take a taxi to hospital to get chemotherapy. That is the state of the NHS in Scotland under the SNP.

• 6 Nov 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q14. I echo the Prime Minister’s sentiments towards that other son of Lewis—although I wish that I had woken up today in the Isle of Harris. My constituents there face long delays, cancellations and loss of service because of the SNP’s incompetent handling of ferry procurement. In last week’s Budget the Scottish Government received a record settlement. May I urge the Prime Minister to tell Scottish Ministers to use that to improve public services in Scotland, to invest in the NHS in Na h-Eileanan an Iar, to build schools in places such as Barra and finally to fix the ferry fiasco?

• 5 Nov 2024 · Scotland’s Architectural Heritage · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for the point that Glasgow is a cultural lighthouse and a beacon, although much decayed in present days, as he has noted. Its buildings do speak to the world, and hopefully will again when the Mack is restored. Winston Churchill said: “We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us.” —[ Official Report , 28 October 1943; Vol. 393, c. 403.] The Mack and Glasgow School of Art has certainly done that. It is a 20th century dynamo that has produced some of the most talented British artistic practitioners we have seen. Doctor Who went to Glasgow School of Art in the shape of Peter Capaldi, who is my favourite Doctor. Coincidentally, my good friend Annie Grace, a piper who was also at Glasgow School of Art, is sharing the stage with another Doctor, David Tennant, in the west end production of “Macbeth”. It is not just the previous students we have to think about.