Chamber and committees

We have touched on this before, but I am interested in the significant impact that the attitude to work and the work-life balance, and changing working patterns such as hybrid working, are having on the city centre workforce. Are we going to have to redesign city centres? In this meeting, four witnesses are appearing remotely and one is in the room. Previously, when you had a business meeting, you were in a coffee shop somewhere or you had lunch or whatever, but that does not happen as much any more. Are we going to have to rethink the way in which we employ people in city centres? I will go to Dr Randolph first.

Would anyone else like to comment?

Does anyone else want to come in? That was my final question.

Thank you, convener. I am delighted to have the opportunity to ask Professor Morris another question.

If you were to ask a clinician how we prevent the spread of a pathogen, they would say, “Don’t go outside and don’t meet anybody else. That will definitely do it.” There is a tension between the pure health science that is involved in dealing with a pandemic and what we are continually learning about the non-Covid-related impact of the Covid response. How is that being baked into your thought process and the development of the study?

Yes.

That is very helpful, cabinet secretary. I decided to take that line of questioning because the Christie commission report has been out for some time. Quite frankly, it is a failure of all of us in this place that it has not been implemented in the way that it should have been.

In evidence to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee on health inequalities, it was noted that the Covid pandemic had exacerbated health inequalities that were already on a rising trajectory, and concern was expressed that we would just go back to business as usual. At a health inequalities reception that I hosted a couple of days ago, one of the deep-end doctors described the delivery of our health services in a way that I had never heard before—they said that they are designed on demand, not on need. I am warmed by the thought that we might have an opportunity here to grasp a hold of the way in which we deliver health services in order to tackle this kind of health inequality, but is the Government really committed to taking it? You will know of the inverse care law, which is that the 20 per cent of our population who do not access health care are the ones who are most in need. How is the Government going to tackle that?

On that point, you have said that this is the direction of travel that you would like to go in, and the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care has said exactly the same, but the truth of the matter is that we are an unhealthy nation. In the health secretary’s own words, we are getting sicker, and that is compounding the problems at A and E. What action is the Government going to take to tackle that sort of health inequality? After all, we have talked about this issue a lot, and the Christie commission report has been around for a long time, too.

Good morning, cabinet secretary. I am sure that we will continue to learn about the impacts of Covid, and we already know that its effects are disproportionate on the older population and those who have conditions such as obesity and diabetes, as well as those who live in poverty. We have on-going learning in relation to that.

I have had this conversation with you and with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care before. It is about the potential, out of the back of Covid and the learnings from Covid, to look at the way that we deliver services and how we tackle health inequalities. That is a good target to have on many levels, not least for those experiencing inequalities, but there is also a positive cost to tackling health inequalities. I wonder whether the Government is considering exactly that? We have had positive conversations about that. What is the Government doing on the back of Covid to look at the way in which we deliver health and other services in order to tackle health inequalities?

Finally, I want to ask about another of my pet likes: the application and deployment of technology, and the ways in which technology helped us with tackling Covid. Where are we with that? I am on record as saying that we are way behind the curve in our ability to deploy healthcare tech, but is the Government considering the deployment of technology as part of pandemic preparedness?

Same.