The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Displaying 986 contributions
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 19 September 2023
Emma Harper
I recently read that the Scottish Government is providing £700 million of support to mitigate things such as the bedroom tax. I know that this is straying into politics. The Barnett formula makes adjustments for Scotland, but we are constrained by the way that the budget is delivered in Scotland by another Government. Do we need to be looking at alternatives to how the Scottish Government’s block grant is delivered?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 19 September 2023
Emma Harper
I am thinking about community pharmacy as another way to direct people—pharmacy first, for instance—and our national treatment centres, which have been established so that elective surgery can be done and emergency beds are not taking up the space for elective patients. That work has been done, but I feel like we are spinning plates sometimes because none of it is an overnight fix. I used the example of Professor Pekka Puska in Finland: it took three decades but, with that approach, he reduced the mortality of men from cardiovascular disease by 80 per cent.
Is the Scottish Government going in the right direction when it comes to budget choices around health and—on the back of Evelyn’s question—when it comes to helping people manage expectations as well?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 19 September 2023
Emma Harper
Yes, and I need to remind everybody that I am a currently registered nurse. I forgot to say that at the beginning.
I have a quick question about the economy. Normally, we take gross domestic product as a measure of how successful a country is. However, we now have a Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy, so we are looking at wellbeing and we know that, if we help to get people out of poverty, that can support them into being more productive. Do you agree that supporting a wellbeing economy is an approach that we can take to how we budget for health? It will be relevant across portfolios when we are talking about things such as housing and poverty and addressing the issues that we face in Scotland.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 19 September 2023
Emma Harper
Thanks.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 19 September 2023
Emma Harper
My question is for Philip Whyte. I have some bits of paper in front of me about preventative approaches. Henry Dimbleby has written a lot about ultra-processed foods, and Professor Pekka Puska has done work in Finland on reducing the mortality of people through a whole-system approach by getting restaurants, cafes and supermarkets involved in providing healthier choices that are affordable for people. I am thinking about having preventative spend rather than secondary care constantly fighting fires. Something has to shift in the way that we invest, in order to stop folk getting into the hospital in the first place and to stop people being sick.
I am also looking at our paper on non-communicable disease prevention. My colleagues Gillian Mackay, Carol Mochan, Sandesh Gulhane and Foysol Choudhury and I have been part of a cross-party approach to look at non-communicable diseases, which contributed around 53,000 deaths in 2022 in Scotland. Something needs to be done differently. What do you suggest that we cut in order to move funding to preventative spend? There is only one pot of money, and it is a real challenge to figure out what we need to do differently.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 12 September 2023
Emma Harper
Thank you.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 12 September 2023
Emma Harper
You mentioned the voluntary sector in discussing the complexity of the provision of care. The committee often speaks about the third sector as it relates to social prescribing, for example. How does the Government plan to ensure that third sector agencies are supported and viable, given that they are important to the provision of social care services?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 12 September 2023
Emma Harper
I come back to the national centre for remote and rural healthcare, which will commence next month; I think that an announcement was made on that. My region—South Scotland—is pretty rural and remote all the way down to Stranraer. Where are we with that centre being ready for next month?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 12 September 2023
Emma Harper
I thought that someone else was going to kick off on this topic.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 12 September 2023
Emma Harper
Convener, do I have time for a quick question about palliative care?