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Women’s Health Services (Caithness and Sutherland) (PE1924)
Access to ADHD Diagnosis and Treatment (PE2156)
11:25
The fourth item on our agenda is consideration of two public petitions that have been referred to this committee: PE1924, which calls for an emergency in-depth review of women’s health services in Caithness and Sutherland, and PE2156, which calls for access to diagnosis and treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder to be improved.
The Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee referred PE1924 to this committee on 15 June 2022, in the context of the committee’s wider consideration of health inequalities. It referred PE2156 to this committee on 18 June 2025, and the committee agreed to consider that petition as part of its inquiry into ADHD and autism pathways and support. The committee completed that inquiry by publishing a report on 2 February 2026. We will address each of the petitions in turn.
How do members wish to proceed in relation to PE1924?
This petition is of considerable importance. Given that we do not have time to go into it in the depth that it requires, I think that it should be carried forward into the next session.
This petition should be left open, with something put into our legacy document about how the next committee could take it forward. I do not think that the issue that it concerns has concluded yet, and a new iteration of this committee should definitely look at it.
I declare an interest as a practising NHS GP.
We should keep this petition open as we certainly do not have time to do justice to it. I agree with Gillian Mackay that we should put it into our legacy report, but my feeling is that we should ask for the issue to be considered in a wider context than just Caithness and Sutherland.
In my work, I have been involved quite heavily with the Galloway community hospital action group, looking at maternity services in the south-west of Scotland—that links with a previous petition about maternity services in Caithness. I know that a Scottish maternity and neonatal task force has been created to consider maternity issues overall, so I would be happy to keep the petition open and mention it in the legacy report, because there is on-going work concerning maternity services, especially in rural areas.
I agree with what has been said. Members have made good points about the work that is going on in relation to the issue that the petition concerns. It is important to make our successor committee aware of the petition, so we should include it in our legacy report.
Does the committee agree with those recommendations?
Members indicated agreement.
How do members wish to proceed in relation to PE2156?
Given that the committee has concluded a large piece of work on this topic, I would be content to close the petition. However, as there is on-going work in relation to the issue that the petition concerns, we could recommend in our legacy report that, a couple of years into the next session of Parliament, the issue should be looked at again to consider whether any further improvements need to be made.
I agree with Gillian Mackay. We have done a substantial bit of work, but because of the significant delays in assessment and diagnosis that we uncovered, which we addressed in our report, we need to keep an eye on progress.
As others have said, we have done a significant amount of work on this topic and have produced a report addressing the issues. We should close the petition, but we know that the issue will be raised again in the next session of Parliament.
I agree with my colleagues. We have fulfilled the petitioner’s request to look into the issue in depth. Given what is contained in the petition about the lack of a diagnosis and the consequences that that can have on somebody’s life, the next committee should have an on-going look at the issue. However, as I say, we have fulfilled the petitioner’s request.
Do we agree to close the petition, and to mention the committee’s work on the issue in our legacy report?
Members indicated agreement.
At our next meeting, we will undertake periodic scrutiny of the work of Food Standards Scotland and the now-finalised national good food nation plan. That concludes the public part of our meeting.
11:31
Meeting continued in private until 12:02.