Chamber and committees

I will hand that over to Greig Chalmers, because he has been involved for much longer than I have.

Your last point was about GP training. When Dr O’Kelly was with you two weeks ago, he spoke about work that is happening with NHS England. There is a four-nations approach, and a lot of work has been done to connect NHS Scotland support for GP training with what is available in England. That is really positive for women, because we are looking at how we can get the best resources to support them and how we can enable GPs to support their patients.

My understanding is that the GP refers women to their local health board, which then refers them to the complex mesh surgical service, which is managed by NSS and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

The bill was passed in 2021-22.

To go back to answers to earlier questions, it is important to get the website right and to get support for the women who are in this situation right. There is currently a good amount of information on the website, but it could be improved. There is an argument that a lot of the websites could be improved to ensure that people get the right information and support.

That work has been continuing in parallel with work to ensure that the women who are referred get the best service. Improvements include the move to the new Victoria hospital, where the welcome, support and environment have been improved. Everything depends on priorities and resources, and it is right that some of the attention has gone on the location where women are first given support.

However, I take on board that the website needs to be improved. Just yesterday, we were talking about the hyperlink and I said that I expect it to be a quick win to add a link to the service so that, as soon as someone goes on to the NHS Inform website or the NSS website, they get directly to the service that they are looking for.

Sadly, I did not get the same training as you got. I do not have children, but I do recognise the conditions and their results.

Giving information on different exercises in primary and secondary schools would be a strong way forward. Emma Harper raised that concern during the evidence session on 2 May. This summer, I hope, the women’s health group website is set to launch some short animations and support to help women to understand the importance of exercising muscles in their pelvic area.

That is a really positive way forward, and it reflects the importance of having the women’s health plan, which can react and respond positively when women see a specific need. I would love yoga teachers or Pilates teachers to come into schools to give women support. That is a good suggestion from Evelyn Tweed.

This week or early next week, I will have a meeting with Natalie Don, the Minister for Children, Young People and Keeping the Promise. We can talk about what solutions we might put in place.

If I am being honest, I have not looked specifically at peer support for mesh survivors. However, I have had really positive experiences of groups getting together. We talked earlier about menopause, and there have been amazing support groups around that—even St Mirren Football Club has created a menopause chat group. I would like to see that happening for mesh survivors.

The other way of offering support is perhaps through third sector organisations. As an MSP, I have quite regular conversations with the chief officer of Argyll and Bute health and social care partnership about how it is supporting women’s health in that health board area. It is about considering what connections could perhaps be made with the third sector interface or other women’s health groups that could be of support. I am interested in looking at that theme, because I have seen great success through self-help groups in other areas.

That is a very fair question. Some of what I read in preparation for this meeting included responses from women who gave the kind of examples that you have given. Some articles also say that women had not been told, or did not know, or could not remember exactly what had happened to them.

I would hope—speaking very much as a layperson and someone who goes to a doctor for advice—that doctors’ training and knowledge would allow them to ask the appropriate questions of their patients. I am sure that that is the case for the vast majority of GPs. I hope that they would therefore be able to eliminate something or say what the next step might be, such as a referral for a scan to see what has happened.

I am only a patient, but that is what I would hope for if I went to a GP to explain some of the symptoms that I had. As I indicated earlier to Carol Mochan, the increase in knowledge of this issue, and the support for GPs that I believe that health boards have put in place, plus the training, will move things to allow for better diagnosis. However, I absolutely get what you say about the fact that, historically, that information was perhaps not captured.

You are absolutely correct that I am the minister. However, I am also a patient, and the experience that I was giving you was my own. One strength of a lot of MSPs and everyone sitting round this table is that we all come to discussions, debates and policy with our experiences. Therefore, it is important that I reflect that in answering questions, as you reflect the fact, which I respect very much, that you are a practising GP. Therefore, I absolutely take on board what you have said.

Yes, it would be wonderful to have a simple system that allowed everything to be accessible, but we must recognise that there are requirements around the general data protection regulation, which is high on a doctor’s list of considerations when it comes to confidentiality and suchlike. However, on the premise of your point, yes, a simplified system would be helpful.

No—not at all. I was referring to how information is stored and made accessible.