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 798 contributions
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 8 May 2024
Jenni Minto
Currently, the CMO is going to provide a written statement, and that is the way that I think the update should be delivered to Parliament.
I know that colleagues across the chamber would not want a knee-jerk reaction to a 400-page report that did not properly consider how services in Scotland are delivered or what work on training or on standards is already under way.
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 8 May 2024
Jenni Minto
I, too, thank Emma Harper for lodging this important motion, and I welcome the opportunity to respond on behalf of the Scottish Government. I also put on record my thanks to those who support people living with asthma in Scotland, including our NHS and third sector organisations such as Asthma and Lung UK. Finally, I thank Emma Harper and Alexander Stewart for their sterling work in the CPG. I have interacted with them before and will be happy to do so again, if I am still in this role.
Carol Mochan is absolutely right to say that asthma is important to me. Both my father and brother had it, and, going back to what Jackie Dunbar said, I remember that, any time we went out, we had to make sure that the appropriate inhalers were packed. I also thank Emma Harper for outlining the symptoms.
World asthma day gives us time to reflect on the progress that has been made in respiratory care and on the challenges that we face. We know that care and treatment for conditions such as asthma are not always where they need to be, but we are continuing to work collaboratively across our whole system to tackle it.
The Scottish Government is committed to improving services across the country and meeting needs through the implementation of a respiratory care action plan. The plan sets out key priority areas for driving improvement in prevention, diagnosis, care, treatment and support for people living with a range of respiratory conditions.
As well as the national plan, significant work is being done across the wider health and social care landscape. The centre for sustainable delivery supports professionals across Scotland to come together and share best practice while working towards consistent once-for-Scotland pathways in respiratory services, A priority in the current work plan of the respiratory specialty delivery group is the development of a once-for-Scotland asthma pathway. Indeed, the group’s aim is to design a national pathway in partnership with clinicians and, importantly, those who live with asthma.
A major milestone in asthma care this year has been the publication of “Quality Prescribing Strategy for Respiratory: A Guide for Improvement 2024-2027”. The document aims to keep people at the centre of their treatment and respiratory disease management and to promote safe, evidence-based and sustainable prescribing with regular reviews of medication. The guide will support clinicians across the multidisciplinary team and people with respiratory conditions in shared decision making, and it offers practical advice and options for tailoring care to individuals’ needs and preferences.
Alongside the guide, a suite of national therapeutic indicators that has been developed with Public Health Scotland will allow clinicians to identify those most in need of a review. Primary care teams will be able to drill down to cluster and practice-level data and benchmark across Scotland, driving consistency in care.
It is important to address the point that Jackie Baillie and Carol Mochan made about the importance of data. We are currently working with Asthma and Lung UK and other key partners on commissioning a full national audit programme for respiratory conditions.
The prescribing guide also has a focus on net zero. Many people with asthma might be surprised to learn that the environmental impact of inhalers for treating asthma and COPD is equivalent to around 80,000 tonnes of CO2 a year. That is more than the emissions from the entire NHS fleet and full NHS waste combined. We want to ensure that patients and their prescribing clinicians are equipped with the facts to enable them to make choices.
We also understand that environmental factors play a huge role in the day-to-day lives of people who live with lung conditions such as asthma. Our vision for Scotland is to have the cleanest air in Europe, and we are committed to protecting the public from the effects of poor-quality air as quickly as possible. The introduction of low-emission zones in our four largest cities in 2022 was a key initiative in further improving urban air quality.
I congratulate Jackie Baillie and Jackie Dunbar on their smoking cessation. I was just commenting to a friend that I can remember getting the no-smoking lesson back in primary school; one of my friends went back to his parents’ house, where his father smoked, and he stuck stickers all the way up the stairway. They got ripped off, but the marks were still there. The father has now stopped smoking, which is great. It took a long time, but he did it.
As a Government, we remain committed to a tobacco-free Scotland by 2034, and the United Kingdom Tobacco and Vapes Bill will help us to achieve our ambitious target. Scotland has a range of world-leading tobacco-control measures, and smoking rates continue to decline. Our tobacco and vaping framework, which was launched on 22 November last year, sets out our road map to 2034 and outlines decisive action, including work on the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, to ensure that we hit our goal. That suite of preventative measures will help people better manage their condition and support us in preventing respiratory disease in future generations.
I agree with everyone who has talked about the appropriateness of the theme of this year’s world asthma day: “Asthma Education Empowers”. As Carol Mochan has said, we understand the benefits of empowering people with asthma through the appropriate education, so that they can manage their disease and recognise when to seek medical help.
We also work with many third sector partners who provide invaluable support to those living with lung disease. I am not going to start singing now, but I spent an amazing couple of hours singing for lung health with the Cheyne Gang in Leith, which Emma Harper introduced me to. I know that the chamber would not want me to sing, but it was great.
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 8 May 2024
Jenni Minto
As Jackie Baillie pointed out, the decision has been taken to amalgamate the alcohol nurse outreach service, which was a pilot that was set up by the health and social care partnership, into the alcohol and drugs recovery service. That will bolster an existing very successful service with nurses. That service is already accessed not only by people who have a drugs issue but by people who have an alcohol issue. According to the information that I have received, it is a good service that will absolutely support people who are in need of such holistic care.
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 8 May 2024
Jenni Minto
I thank Tim Eagle for his question and recognise that we have to ensure that ambulance turnarounds are as quick and safe as possible. We have many examples of where work on that is being done, and the Government has regular meetings with the health boards to discuss what they are doing and where there might be blockages. For example, NHS Grampian has established an area with six overspill beds, which has been robustly staffed over the past month and is available over a 24-hour period.
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 8 May 2024
Jenni Minto
Patient safety remains our top priority, and I apologise to anyone who has experienced a wait for an ambulance team to reach them. The Scottish Ambulance Service is currently reviewing 2024-25 recruitment plans to reflect the expansion of innovative services such as flow navigation centres and the integrated clinical hub, which aim to provide as much care as possible for patients at home or close to home without conveying them to hospital. That is one action that we are taking.
It is important to understand where the pressures are and find the right solutions to them, and that is what the Scottish Government is committed to doing.
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 8 May 2024
Jenni Minto
I thank Sandesh Gulhane for his question. As I said in my response to his fellow Conservative MSP, Alexander Stewart, we have listened to feedback. We have consulted the sector and have changed the fee for dental remuneration.
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 8 May 2024
Jenni Minto
Just over two weeks ago, I stood in the chamber to emphasise what is undeniably a fact: that young people who are questioning their gender or accessing gender identity healthcare, and their families and those who love them, must be at the centre of all our discussions about the delivery of that care. I hope that we will all keep them in our hearts and minds during the rest of the debate and, in doing so, remain compassionate, understanding and respectful.
As I said in my statement,
“it is vitally important that the recommendations”
in the Cass review’s final report, which was published in April,
“are carefully considered”.—[Official Report, 23 April 2024; c 14.]
The Scottish Government has consistently welcomed the report’s publication. The review itself was chaired by a past president of the United Kingdom’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health—a senior and well-respected clinician. Many of us will have heard her helpful and clear evidence at the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee meeting yesterday, and I recognise the Cass review’s final report as a scientific, evidence-based document.
When Dr Cass was asked yesterday for her key conclusions from the review, she said two things: first, that the evidence base in this specialist field of medicine is weak, and we need to work as collaboratively and broadly as we can to improve that evidence base, and secondly, that children and young people need a broad multidisciplinary approach to their care. I think that all of us in the chamber would agree with those two points.
The Scottish Government has already provided grant funding to the University of Glasgow to carry out research into the long-term health outcomes of people who access gender identity healthcare. That will play a part in improving the evidence base. Person-centred and holistic multidisciplinary care has been at the heart of our chief medical officer’s realistic medicine approach for many years, and our clinicians know how important it is to see the whole person whom they care for.
The final report is detailed and wide ranging. It is important that its recommendations are carefully considered in the context of how services are delivered in NHS Scotland, and to consider what further steps may need to be taken.
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 8 May 2024
Jenni Minto
The chief medical officer will provide a written update to Parliament on the outcome of that clinical consideration process before the summer recess. I am sure that colleagues across the chamber will welcome that assessment and will understand, just as NHS England has stated, that, given the comprehensiveness of the report, that will take some time.
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 8 May 2024
Jenni Minto
I need to make progress.
As part of our work, the Scottish Government is clear that there needs to be transparency. We therefore agree that the CMO will write to the Parliament, as I have said, reporting in full all of the clinical findings of the senior multidisciplinary clinical team, and to prepare a progress report on the existing strategy for reducing long waits for children and young people to access specialist gender services. On that basis, and to find consensus, we will accept the Labour Party’s amendment.
I hope that all of us can agree that that consensus will be helpful for the young people involved, their families, clinicians and health professionals who deliver gender identity healthcare.
It did not take the publication of the report for the Scottish Government to start a broad programme of work to improve gender identity healthcare. It is important to note that, in Scotland, we are already making progress on several of the aspects of gender identity healthcare that are highlighted in the Cass review.
Dr Cass reminded us in her report that
“A compassionate and kind society remembers that there are real children, young people, families, carers and clinicians behind the headlines.”
I hope that that sentiment is one that we can all keep in mind in today’s debate and as we progress.
I move amendment S6M-13090.4, to leave out from “implement” to end and insert:
“thoroughly examine the recommendations of the NHS England commissioned report, and its applicability to NHS Scotland services, and to update the Parliament on the outcome before the summer recess.”
15:28Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 8 May 2024
Jenni Minto
I will not, but it was amazing—I thought that you were about to tell me that my seven minutes was up, Presiding Officer. In any case, the event was clearly about encouraging people to think about breathing with their entire lungs and giving each other peer support.
In 2023-24, more than 600 nurses accessed training modules as part of our respiratory care action plan to build on the knowledge and skills in the NHS workforce. Another positive development has been the delivery of guidance for children living with asthma transitioning into adult services. We know that that is a particularly challenging time for young people, their families and carers, and that not all areas of Scotland offer transition services, but guidance has been developed by a group of asthma specialists in partnership with the third sector and those with first-hand experience of a good transition.
I will close by reiterating the Government’s commitment to ensuring that everyone living with asthma in Scotland receives the best possible care and support. As we move through 2024, we know that there is still a way to go in respiratory care and the only way that we will improve is by understanding the needs of those who live with the condition. My thanks go to all members who have contributed to this important debate today, and, most important, to those working across health and social care to deliver those commitments.