Chamber and committees

I do accept that that is what you want to do. The problem for me is that often, in Parliament, we do lots of talking, but we need action. Therefore, I am keen to have a timetable saying when we might be able to move towards better pay and terms and conditions for staff.

I have a very short last question on private profit in care, which you mentioned earlier. We need to discuss that again. I hope that you will understand that social care is not about private profit, and that we need to work hard to make sure that that is removed from the system.

Do you accept that we need to be brave with some of the stuff that my colleague Paul Sweeney mentioned in relation to the economics of health and social care and breaking the cycle of huge overspend and delayed discharge, and that the way to resolve that is to make those decisions?

That sounds good. I do not know whether the minister would commit to coming back within a short timeframe to lay out some of her suggestions for that.

I would really appreciate getting that data. People come to us as individuals as well, and it is important for us to be able to feed back. These long, long waits for women have been going on for years and it is our job to scrutinise things and make sure that everything is being done.

Where women have chosen the other option—to go down south or across to Dr Veronikis—is anybody currently waiting for a referral on in the system or has everyone who has requested that option to date had a referral on?

Do the figures that you quoted mean that eight women, who have chosen a different pathway, are waiting to get their final referral?

That was very helpful. Thank you.

I nominate Paul Sweeney.

Paul Sweeney was chosen as deputy convener.

For me, today’s meeting has raised the issue of the importance of the non-surgical side of treatment. I am sure that the same is true for other members, so I really appreciate the fact that the witnesses have spoken about that. A lot of the issues have been covered as we have gone through the evidence session.

Do we need to do anything on communication with health boards around that? Should there be an expansion of the multidisciplinary team in relation to pain management? A lot of work is being done on pain management in the community and with other services that provide that. Would that be helpful for women who cannot, or choose not to, go down the surgical route?

I have two questions. In the interests of time, I will ask both of them now.

First, in general, we understand and recognise that staffing is a longer-term solution. However, what one or two things could we—the boards, the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament—do, by working together, that might ease the pressure in the next year or two?

My second question is on midwifery. We see a lot of figures for nursing and midwifery together. However, I have met some midwives—there were midwives in the Parliament last week—who say that there are particular pressures around the recruitment and retention of midwives. Midwifery is an essential part of the healthcare system. How do you find the situation in your own areas? I would be interested to know that.