Chamber and committees

Congratulations, Jim. At this point, I hand over convenership to you.

You have talked about a single point of access. That is a very important point, and we have heard about that in a lot of the evidence that we have taken. We have also heard that long Covid sufferers would like long Covid clinics to be established in Scotland to provide a specific service. What is your thinking on dedicated long Covid clinics being established in Scotland, as happens in other parts of the UK?

Good morning, cabinet secretary; I welcome your colleagues, too.

I want to follow on from the convener’s line of questioning. During the inquiry, we have heard a lot from long Covid sufferers about their issues in trying to access services. I want to read you an email that we received a couple of weeks ago from a long Covid sufferer in Aberdeenshire—I do not have permission to give his name—to give you a flavour of some of the feedback that we have had. Recounting his experience, that individual said:

“I’ve just been forced to make a private GP appointment ... due to the complete lack of support from the NHS. Actually, it’s worse than that as my current GP surgery is utterly dismissive.”

He has a long Covid diagnosis. He went on to say:

“In December, I was forced to take a day off work, contacted the surgery”

and

“The GP told me: ‘There’s nothing to be done for long Covid.’ ... ‘Current NICE guidelines state we are not to prescribe pain relief for chronic pain’”

and

“‘You have to take responsibility and self manage’.”

It is clear that it is not acceptable that individuals who have a long Covid diagnosis are getting that response from their GPs, is it not?

The end of the financial year is only two weeks away. That does not give them very long to spend the money.

Right. How long before?

If I were a long Covid sufferer in front of you, I would say that it is fine that you are talking about developing the pathways and that you recognise that there are issues, but the key question is: when will we get to a state in which we have the services that people need?

Maybe that will be a job for your successor as health secretary if you are no longer in that role. Who knows?

I have a follow-up question on a slightly different topic. Yesterday, you wrote to the committee with a list of funding that had been allocated in the current financial year. Various funding streams were announced for third sector organisations, which is welcome. Is that £334,000 money that was unspent in this year’s budget?

I appreciate that that is work in progress. We have heard that over a long period of time, but the feedback that we keep getting from people is that their experience on the ground is still lacking.

That individual said that he had to go private. That has been a consistent theme in what we have heard from long Covid sufferers. People have had to go private to try to access a GP who has expertise in the area. That is fine for those who can afford it, but many people cannot afford it. Have we therefore not created a two-tier system? Is that not unacceptable?

The funds that have been allocated are within this financial year’s budget.