Seòmar agus comataidhean

Ms Baillie and I talked about those points in the most recent of our one-to-one discussions, which I offer to Opposition health and social care spokespeople regularly. Discussions at that level allow me to share my vision and the Scottish Government’s intention with colleagues and to hear their concerns and examples of where things are not working.

I expect NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s use of the Golden Jubilee hospital to increase. New management is in place at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, as it is on an interim basis at the Golden Jubilee. As I said in response to the convener and to others, I expect, and we are seeing, greater co-operation between health boards to ensure that capacity is being optimised across their boundaries.

I recognise the point that Ms Baillie made about cancer waiting times in Glasgow compared with those in Lanarkshire. Can there be greater co-operation there, in relation to either how Lanarkshire has been able to meet its targets when other boards are struggling to do so, or whether the level of delivery in one health board area allows it to pick up some of the challenge that other boards face? That is exactly the type of work that is under way.

That work is under way now, so I expect that situation to start improving as of now.

In my response to Mr Ewing, I set out that there is a service available in Tayside and I will discuss with the petitioner whether that service is sufficient for her. It was certainly helpful for my constituent and his need. On whether more can be done, I am clearly happy to consider that with NSS, as I have already committed to do, in response to Mr Ewing.

Douglas McLaren advises that the committee meets quarterly, but I am happy to provide a more detailed answer on its productivity, as you put it. I am happy to furnish that response.

I point Ms Baillie to the community link worker network, which seeks to move provision upstream, although I recognise the challenges that there are with that in some parts of the country.

I know that there is a petition from the deep-end practice network that calls for an expansion of the community link worker network. The CLW programme is under national review. Community link workers try to ensure that people, in a trusted place—the GP surgery—can be signposted to other services through which the root cause of the issue that they are presenting with can be addressed. Often, that support relates to housing, income maximisation, education and other elements of public service. It is also about the need to increase the opportunities that are available through social prescribing to address people’s mental health issues, which is in the population health framework.

The community link worker network is there to do that, and it is where we seek to move things upstream. The likes of the family nurse partnership is similarly about ensuring that we are supporting people much earlier in the journey than we are at the moment, where we treat the acute situation.

Agenda for change staff have protected time for developing skills and for training. We are asking our staff to go the extra mile in order to get through the Covid-related backlog. I am incredibly grateful to them for that, and recognise that we can see activity levels increasing and waiting times reducing. In July, we delivered the highest number of operations in the NHS in Scotland since February 2020.

Clearly, a shift in delivery has resulted from the investment that has been put in and the endeavours of staff, as well as the optimisation of capacity to ensure that we maximise the ability of the service to deliver. However, I recognise that, where we are asking staff to go further, that is putting stress and strain on them when they are already in a stressful situation, and is putting at risk their ability to undertake continuous training and upskilling. That is why the agenda for change contracts include protected learning time, which I expect boards to honour.

Following on from the discussion that Ms Baillie and I had previously about paediatric nurses and nurse vacancies, Ms Baillie will receive correspondence—she might already have received it—which will inform her that NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde advertised for additional paediatric nurses this year, so there are jobs available.

I recognise the position in terms of resident doctors moving through specialty training, and, because we need the increased capacity, we are working with boards to ensure that they have the resource to be able to offer those places.

The short-term plans on priority areas and projects were set out and voted on by Parliament as part of the budget process. The long-term capital position is under review as part of the infrastructure investment plan, which we expect to bring forward as part of the budget and spending review process.

There is a substantial amount in Mr Golden’s question, which points to the future provision that we will need to get to in order to ensure that we maximise the clinical capacity for the health service, that only humans can deliver on. We have already spoken about the demands that are upon us in the health service, and we need to ensure that we free as much clinical time as possible to meet those demands.

I will point to a number of areas. First, we have a theatre optimisation tool, which is a digital-based product that has been rolled out across Scotland. I saw it in a demonstration in NHS Lothian, and it means that we are able to optimise—the clue is in the name—the level of productivity in our theatres. It ensures that the human estimations of how long an operation will take are being challenged through the application and that we have the maximum optimised level of bookings in the system.

Secondly, we will soon be setting out in detail the roll-out plan for the health and social care application—the app—in Scotland. It will start in Lanarkshire and be rolled out from there. That will initially be on a relatively minimal viable product basis, which will be about appointments, access to vaccinations and so on.

The question is how we scale that up. Part of the discussions that we are having with the BMA and the Royal College of General Practitioners—to address Mr Golden’s point—is about the data that we get from our general practitioners and how that can help to inform what can go through the app. The app can be integrated across health and social care, giving people much more power in their own hands and saving substantial amounts of resources in relation to appointments, bookings and other services that might be able to come through the app.

Lastly, Mr Golden referenced AI. There are good examples of where AI is being utilised, such as in NHS Grampian where it is being used in the lung screening process. Other services are coming through the system—good opportunities are coming through. When I was in Japan, I was able to see the phenomenal work that has been done by some of the companies that are based in Japan but work here in Scotland, which is looking at how AI can help to transform radiology. Alongside moving upstream into a more preventative health service, better utilising technology and having advancements come through the health service is also where we will meet the demands that are coming at us.

One such demand is the expectation of a 20 per cent increase in the burden of disease. How do we reverse that? How do we move forward? It is through the utilisation of innovation and new technology and moving further upstream into the preventative space. Mr Golden has struck an incredibly salient and pertinent point, which we are absolutely committed to moving forward with.

Forgive me, convener, but I did not address Mr Ewing’s direct question. The answer is contained in my response to Mr Golden, which is that the infrastructure investment plan and the spending review will set out our capital investment plans. We will get to that as part of the process for this year’s budget.