Chamber and committees

Good morning to youse. My question is about working with the third sector as part of winter planning, so I am sure that David Gibson will want to come in. Nicky Connor mentioned that we need to plan widely and collaboratively. What work is being done to involve the third and voluntary sectors as part of winter planning?

Because of my background in orthopaedic surgery and working in the operating room, I am curious about the flexibility of staff and the ability for them not to work in isolation. It is important that people know that we have the national treatment centres with the goal of challenging waiting lists for hip or knee replacements and ophthalmology, for instance.

I am interested in digital care. We have Near Me. When I was reading my papers for the committee, I found out about Connect Me, which seems—so that people feel more connected, rather than feeling remote—to have evolved because of use of language that was remote. We have telehealth and telemedicine—all this telestuff—and now we have Connect Me, but none of my nursing colleagues has heard about Connect Me.

What work do you think needs to be done to help people to understand what Connect Me is all about? I understand that technology enabled care is beneficial, especially, as John Burns mentioned, in cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, through chronic respiratory early warning scoring—CREWS—in the community to keep folk out of hospital. I am very familiar with that, but I am interested in how we get info out to people about what digital solutions are out there.

Technology enabled care in Scotland has a Twitter—or X—account, but folk in Dumfries and Galloway dinnae do Twitter, thank goodness; they do Facebook. Should we use different social media platforms to help to raise awareness about the work that the Scottish Government is doing on digital tech solutions, for instance?

Good morning, cabinet secretary and everybody.

I want to pick up on health not being the only portfolio that needs to address the issues that we face in relation to population and so on. How is the Government working with other portfolios, including housing? I know that the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands is working with Paul McLennan, who is the Minister for Housing. Is the Scottish Government taking forward the necessary cross-portfolio engagement?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Community pharmacists are sometimes challenged in dispensing prescriptions because a pharmacist has to be on site. We now have vending machines, which work because of the way in which the regulations de-list part of the pharmacy to allow vending machines to be used for dispensing medicines. I think that the relevant regulations—those that allow medication to be dispensed if it is a repeat prescription for medication that has already been assessed for the patient—are reserved to Westminster. Is any work being done on how we can support pharmacists in that way so that community pharmacies can, for example, continue to dispense medications?

I have a quick supplementary question about terms and conditions and about staffing. Nurses at bands 5 and 6 in Scotland are paid 6 per cent more than their counterparts in England, so we have seen nurses fae Carlisle relocate to Dumfries and Galloway. However, we have seen the opposite with the social care workforce—people who have trained in Dumfries and Galloway have then moved to England.

I am interested to know whether improving terms and conditions for social care staff is an aim in the development of the national care service, so that we can have equivalence in terms and conditions and retain our social care staff in Scotland. Right now it seems that staff are leaving Scotland to go to England because they can get improved salaries and terms and conditions.

I will be very brief. The Scottish graduate entry medicine programme is unique to Scotland and I am interested in hearing feedback about that. In addition, the Rural GP Association of Scotland has concerns about recruitment, retention and workload. How is the Government working with that association?