Chamber and committees

Staying on standard 7, at the moment not all GPs are qualified to prescribe medication-assisted treatment—most probably do not. Is that something that you would like to happen more?

I wish to press a little bit more on what Gillian Martin asked—specifically about what you feel the role of GPs will be.

Absolutely. I listened to your answer to Mr O’Kane’s question, but can you be more specific about what measures will be in place for that?

From your answer, we are looking at five years to get to that 10 per cent target. My worry is that we continue to fall back as we try to achieve that. One of the key aspects of the aims is the redesign of care pathways. Could you tell me a little more about how you plan to redesign care pathways to achieve that target?

I spoke to the BMA, which said that there were things that the Scottish Government could do to help with the pensions issue. The Scottish Government would be able to allow consultants to come out of the pension scheme for a few months and then go back in, thus negating the problem. That has been done in other places around the UK. Would the cabinet secretary be able to provide me with some information as to why we have not done that yet?

The Association of Anaesthetists think that there more than 1,000 shortages across the country, probably closer to 2,000, and the Royal College of Nursing says that there are 3,000 nursing vacancies. Even with the significant increases that are in the paper, we will still barely achieve parity let alone increase the workforce once we consider the natural turnaround and people who are leaving who stayed a bit longer because of Covid. How can we address that?

It was about the redesign of care pathways. The paper says that one of the key aspects would be the redesign of care pathways, so I ask for more details about that.

Given all that you are taking forward, can you tell us who will be the Caldicott guardian for the data that will be collected? If guardians are to be doctors and GPs, how we will ensure security?

I draw members’ attention to my entry in the register of members’ interests: I am a practising GP.

Good morning, cabinet secretary. I wish you a speedy recovery. You should remember that, as we get older, we need to do dynamic warming up, unfortunately. [Laughter.] The same goes for me.

I would like to pick up on a comment that you made earlier to Gillian Mackay about pension reform. When I spoke to the BMA, it said that there were things that the Scottish Government could do. The Scottish Government would be able to allow consultants to come out of the pension scheme for a short period—

I would like to ask the cabinet secretary about the 10 per cent increase in key services, which is part of the plan. What is the timescale for delivering that?