Chamber and committees

Good morning to everyone in the room—and to the folks online, too.

I am interested in media coverage. A recent BBC survey of elite sportswomen found that media coverage had improved but was still not what it should be.

My question comes on the back of Stephanie Callaghan’s question. Does the Scottish Government enable and support you to do bespoke local delivery? We have Pamela Dudek here from NHS Highland, which is rural; we have urban representation from NHS Golden Jubilee National Hospital and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde; and, last week, we had a witness from NHS Borders. Does the Government support you to deliver local plans that work for your areas?

I have a question about other research, but I can always ask it later.

I am interested to hear about Covid recovery in all three areas. We hear from the health boards that come before us and we know that healthcare is really complex. As a nurse, I worked during the pandemic giving vaccines, and I saw how busy, committed and professional the staff were. I am thinking about acute care, mental health care, emergency care and elective care. Jane Grant said that one size does not fit all, when trying to address Covid recovery. I would be interested to hear about any actions that have been taken to progress recovery from Covid. What is working? What isnae working?

I suppose that the issue is competing priorities, when acute care beds are occupied by people who are not well. When it comes to acuity, patients are getting sicker before they are even in the hospital. When beds are being juggled, it is very clear that there are challenges. For example, use of the Golden Jubilee and the sequestering of beds for elective surgery or the national treatment centre, for instance, should support the management of elective treatment so that we do not have competition between bed priorities. Is that what we need to look at?

Do you use social media, too?

I have a quick question for Gordon James. You talked about prescribing, which I know is not just medication but includes diabetes tech—things such as pumps and Abbott Libre and Dexcom monitors. My question is about weighing the balance between the diabetes technology and making sure that we avoid poor blood glucose control. I know that there is a campaign called “Diabetes tech can’t wait”, and I am interested to know how you weigh up avoidance of complications of type 1 diabetes—I declare an interest as a type 1 diabetic pump user—against prescribing and the costs of all of that.

I will be succinct, convener. My question is for Jane Grant. I am looking at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s website, and there is loads of information on staff support and wellbeing—there is information on peer support, self-referrals, mental health, stopping smoking and speaking up. The website says that you are listening. Put simply, how is that marketed to staff? How do they know that they can access those services, from an education standpoint?

Good morning to youse.

I think that the question of stigma has already been answered. That issue came up when Stephanie Callaghan and I got some feedback from young women at the Mary Erskine school about their experiences of participating in sport.

Dr Stark, I am interested in what you said earlier about the need to start young. In 2012, we introduced the daily mile in Scotland. Has that initiative been sustained, and is it growing? Are schools still delivering a daily mile? It is so simple—the kids do not even need gym kit or trainers; they basically just get out of the classroom on days when there is nice Scottish weather, and both genders participate in a daily mile.

I have a supplementary question on the back of what Paul Sweeney asked about the availability of CT scans, additional capacity and prevention in the community. On Friday, when we met at our usual elected members briefing, Ralph, you talked about how beds were used as a currency when we should be looking at the services that are delivered, such as pulmonary rehabilitation or mental health care in the community, which prevent acute admissions.

A lot of work is being done on how we deliver things differently. I heard about a diabetes outreach bus that is being developed in Glasgow by Dr Brian Kennon, which goes to Ibrox stadium, for instance, and helps to do some of the health inequality outreach for people with type 2 diabetes.

Should we focus on that? Rather than just looking at beds as a measurement of how successful things are, should we look at service delivery? Will you comment on that?