Chamber and committees

Thank you for all the detailed information. My question might give you a chance to give us some homework. The Scottish Government has committed to the development of a national centre for remote and rural healthcare for Scotland. What might your aspirations for such a centre be?

The committee has also committed to trying to undertake an inquiry into remote and rural healthcare. Do you have anything that we should specifically direct it to? Please give us some work to do.

Thank you. Laura Skaife-Knight, you are quite new in but does anything spring to mind?

Have any of you had information about when we might get some movement on the set-up of the system? Have you had anything through the health boards? You indicate that you have not.

My question is linked and is about socioeconomic factors and deprivation. Lynne Glen’s points were well made. Do you or other panel members want to highlight anything that we can consider when we think about how to help?

I suppose that people will want to hear about very practical things. Will there be any extra clinic times? Will there be extra resources? Will there be more nurses to give out that kind of advice? You might not be able to give answers to those questions now, but it would be helpful for the committee to know those things for the women.

That would be helpful.

I want to be clear on some of the points that you have made, minister. From parliamentary questions on outpatient appointments, we know that the median waiting time between referral and appointment at the complex mesh surgical service in Glasgow is 236 days and that the longest waiting time is 448 days. I just want clarity on exactly how you have been approaching that issue with the health board. Those waiting times are absolutely unacceptable, and, as members have indicated, this is about a longstanding commitment to women. What discussion have you had with the health board about that? What reassurances do you have for those women that we will get appointment times closer to referral times?

I am interested in the link with GPs, which is so important because GPs are maybe the first port of call. Women have found the matter quite difficult, for two reasons. First, we know that GPs are under enormous stress, so I am interested to know what is out there to help GPs around transvaginal mesh issues.

Secondly, an important point about medical records was raised in our previous evidence session: why are GPs unable to easily ascertain whether women have had mesh implanted? Do we have an understanding of how we might resolve that issue? Some of the women have reported that they went to their GP with the symptom and that either the GP was unaware of it or the diagnosis was delayed. Do GPs get good information about the symptoms so that women can get a diagnosis and a referral?

We have heard about the need to learn lessons and the need to have easy-to-access registry systems for other devices, such as hernia mesh. Has the Government considered that as a way of giving GPs easy access to information? Other people have raised that issue with us in the past.

Good morning. I am keen to have a robust discussion on the matter. There is no doubt that what has come out of the discussions is that the national care service proposals do not address what needs to be sorted now, and that there are many things that we can do to help with social care, which is in absolute crisis, as we have heard.

I was very heartened to hear the minister’s contribution on the professionalism of the workforce and how we make sure that that workforce has good training. However, from talking to the trade unions, there is absolutely no doubt that we need to look at pay and terms and conditions across the board. The unions are very keen to look at sectoral collective bargaining. I am interested to know from the minister and officials whether there is a plan to look at that and whether they will commit to it for the social care workforce.