Chamber and committees

I will take us back to an issue that was mentioned previously. I have done a lot of work with the allied health professions, which are very keen to talk about early intervention and prevention. Is that about a change in attitude and approach, or should there be something in the bill that would help that happen?

I would like clarification of whether there are hurdles that Suzanne McGuinness feels could be overcome to get mental health into the bill, and whether she feels that we will not be able to get mental health services in the bill.

Yes. We took evidence about inspections yesterday from people who work in the field. We know about the importance of going in and seeing how services are performing. There was talk about joint inspections during the pandemic. What were the benefits of that? In relation to the bill, would it be beneficial to look at who is inspecting services, and how and why?

Yes.

Excuse me, convener. If we have finished the evidence-taking session, I wonder whether I might bring up an issue with the committee.

I would quite like to raise the matter now if that is possible.

Thank you, and sorry for interrupting.

Given that we are engaged in scrutiny of the proposed national care service, I thought that yesterday’s reports about a two-tier national health service were quite alarming. I seek the committee’s advice on whether we should seek clarification on some of that, as it very much links in with the work that we are doing. I seek clarity from the committee on that.

Okay.

Yes, it does, but some of the legislative stuff really needs to be worked through before we can be comfortable that people will be protected and that things will be happening as they should.

It is in relation to work within the committee.