Chamber and committees

I have a final, quick question. You will obviously be aware of the issue around midwifery in Dumfries and Galloway. Will the rural and remote healthcare centre include midwifery approaches?

My question is on the Scottish graduate entry medicine programme, which has been really successful in Dumfries and Galloway. My understanding is that retention there has been fab. Cabinet secretary, is ScotGEM unique to Scotland? I know that there are general practitioner issues across the four United Kingdom nations. Are you aware of whether the other nations are considering a ScotGEM-equivalent programme? Scotland leads the way on the matter.

Our briefing papers talk about the “cost of obesity”. I know that the language is changing around that and that rather than labelling someone as having a disease we are now using less stigmatising language and saying that they are a person who is

“living with overweight or obesity”.

Should we be thinking about that and ensuring that people understand that we should not blame people for something that might be not their fault but could be because of issues to do with poverty and access to fruit and vegetables in neighbourhoods where local shops do not have such food. What work is being done to destigmatise the language around obesity so that we can support people in food choices and in access to food?

Before I ask my question, I note that I was one of those social care workers who worked in a care home and then progressed to doing nursing training. I became a nurse and was one for 30 years. We should absolutely pursue opportunities for career progression.

The aim of the national care service is to take a standard national approach to the provision of education for care givers. Is that something that we will see as we progress the service so that it doesnae matter where someone is in the country because everyone will be provided with the same level of education, which will allow people to be more mobile in their career pathways?

Good morning to youse all. I have a quick supplementary. I was reading about long Covid on NHS Inform. There are 16 different languages for people who might need support. Might the Government consider ensuring that people of different ethnicities and languages know that that is available by using social media or whatever?

In the programme for government, there was an announcement about the reopening of the independent living fund. Are you able to speak a wee bit about that?

I am interested in the national treatment centres in relation to winter planning. Pamela Milliken mentioned that, after people fall on ice, they occupy an emergency orthopaedic bed space. The national treatment centres are intended to keep bed spaces sequestered for elective approaches. The NHS Golden Jubilee National Hospital site has the national eye centre, and Fife has the orthopaedic centre. Will such centres help with planning organised approaches to beds in secondary care?

Good morning to panel number 2. I will pick up on what John Burns said about national treatment centres. Pamela Milliken, who was on the previous panel, said that winter planning includes having to think about slips and trips on ice, which can lead to orthopaedic injuries for which people need emergency surgery. However, the national treatment centres are for elective approaches, such as tackling ophthalmic or orthopaedic issues and performing upper gastrointestinal endoscopies.

John-Paul Loughrey, who was on the previous panel, said that staffing those centres would be like robbing Peter to pay Paul. However, my understanding is that our First Minister, when he was Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, said that 1,500 additional staff would be used for the centres. Can you give us an update on whether we will be robbing Peter to pay Paul? What is the status of the recruitment of new staff for the centres?

My question is about bursaries for people who are studying to be paramedics, nurses or midwives. I am a member for South Scotland and the border is 30 miles from Dumfries. Are we tracking whether the bursary that is available for people to study to be nurses or paramedics in Scotland, which is not available for people studying elsewhere—although it has recently been introduced in Wales—is encouraging folks to come from south of the border to train in places such as the University of the West of Scotland?

Thanks, convener. It is gonnae be brief. I am thinking about public messaging this winter to encourage folk to take up their Covid and flu vaccines because of BA.2.86—the new variant that people are worried about. Is more messaging needed out there to say that Covid isnae over and to encourage people to take the vaccine?