Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has used a visit to Wick to set out how his party can win four additional constituency seats in the Highlands and Islands from the SNP and to launch his party’s plans to tackle delayed discharge.

Mr Cole-Hamilton was in Wick to meet Margaret MacGill who is just home after being stuck in hospital for a year when she didn’t need or want to be there – a case he repeatedly raised at First Minister’s Questions.

Margaret was first admitted to Raigmore Hospital in November 2024 with a rare spinal condition, before moving to the Town and County Hospital in Wick in February 2025. Despite being assessed as fit to leave hospital, she was unable to do so because there were no carers able to drop in and help her. She finally returned home last month after her family arranged private care, having been told that otherwise she would have to remain in hospital for another year.

New figures published by Public Health Scotland show that at the February 2026 census, there were 1,939 people whose discharge from hospital was delayed. In February 2026, there were also 55,547 days spent in hospital by people whose discharge was delayed. This is 2% more than the number of delayed days in February 2025 (54,487).

In their forthcoming manifesto, Scottish Liberal Democrats will set out plans to make careers in social care more attractive and value experienced staff to improve retention by:

• Creating new dedicated key worker housing for carers and other eligible workers, so the housing crisis doesn’t stop people taking up posts.
• Rewarding care workers through national bargaining on pay and conditions, fair work and a career ladder that boosts their skills and respects their experience at every step.
• Change to a 7-day discharge model so people aren’t kept in hospital just because it is a weekend.
• Using the NHS App to help people to arrange welfare power of attorney, so they don’t become trapped in hospital down the line.

The seats that the party are targeting are:

• Caithness, Sutherland & Ross, currently held by SNP minister Maree Todd. The Liberal Democrats hold the corresponding Westminster seat with a majority of 10,489.
• Inverness & Nairn, where Liberal Democrat Angus MacDonald won the corresponding Westminster seat in 2024 and the nationalist vote will be split between Fergus Ewing and Emma Roddick.
• Skye, Lochaber & Badenoch, where the party won a December 2025 Fort William & Ardnamurchan by-election by more than 11% from the SNP.
• Argyll & Bute, where former MP Alan Reid is standing for the party in a seat which has only ever been held by the Liberal Democrats or the SNP. A recent Election Maps forecast put the Liberal Democrats 1.3% ahead.

Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

It is a scandal that Margaret had to put up with this for a year. I raised this repeatedly with the First Minister but the family had to take matters into their own hands to get Margaret home.

On any given night, there are 2,000 people marooned in hospital when they don’t need or want to be there – just like Margaret was. The SNP promised they’d get on top of this problem a decade ago but it’s now costing the NHS an eyewatering £1.2 million a day.

It goes to show that until we fix the crisis in our social care system, we won’t be able to fix the crisis in our NHS.

Scottish Liberal Democrats have a plan to fix social care to reduce delayed discharge and relieve pressure on hospitals and emergency care so that people like Margaret can get on with their lives. We would boost pay and conditions, establish clear career pathways so more people choose to work in care and create new housing reserved for key workers.

On the battle for Highland and Island seats he added:

Across the Highlands and islands, voters have two choices. More of the same with the SNP or change with fairness at its heart with the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

For the past year I have been up and down the A9 or on ferries every few weeks helping out our Highland and island candidates and I know that if voters in these key constituencies get behind us, we can win four additional seats and send the SNP packing.

Health services continue to decline, the dualling of the A9 is taking decades and the west coast ferries are regularly cancelled because of the SNP’s ferry fiasco.

I think people here deserve better. If you vote for the Scottish Liberal Democrats, what you get is a local representative who fights your corner.

We have a realistic plan to get things done, delivering first-rate local health care, helping you with the cost of living and getting Scotland moving again by fixing our roads, our ferries and public transport.

In these four constituencies we are on the verge of winning against the SNP. The Highlands and Islands deserve better and with the Scottish Liberal Democrats, you can vote for it.