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Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 12 July 2025
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Displaying 2843 contributions

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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Alternative Pathways to Primary Care

Meeting date: 22 March 2022

Sue Webber

You alluded to link workers reporting that there is a lack of understanding of their role—[Inaudible.]—which impedes progress on social prescribing. You also mentioned some successes. What progress has been made on raising awareness of the role and on making it a much more viable route for care and support?

The point of contact still seems to be the GP practice, and we hear a lot of frustration from people who are struggling to get past the receptionist. It seems that everyone is still having to come in to the GP practice to get a referral. It was interesting to hear from Clare Cook earlier about some of the self-referral pathways. What are we doing to address the lack of understanding?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Alternative Pathways to Primary Care

Meeting date: 22 March 2022

Sue Webber

In 2019, when the Health and Sport Committee was taking evidence—I was not on the committee at the time—it heard about a number of barriers that healthcare practitioners faced in relation to their use of social prescribing. Those barriers included a lack of strong evidence on its long-term effectiveness, time constraints, lack of awareness and quality assurance, or how they could be assured of consistency in quality. Linked to that is the issue of continuous monitoring of whether services are still available in the community, because we know how transient some organisations can be due to lack of funding. Has any progress been made in tackling those barriers in the past three years?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Alternative Pathways to Primary Care

Meeting date: 22 March 2022

Sue Webber

You mentioned self-referral, rather than everyone having to phone the GP practice and speak to the receptionist.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Alternative Pathways to Primary Care

Meeting date: 22 March 2022

Sue Webber

Thanks, convener. I hope that you can see me this time. My signal is a bit more stable now.

The Royal College of Nursing has rightly pointed out that people with poor health literacy are less able to identify or label what is wrong with them, and are therefore less able to identify and self-refer to the various alternative pathways that we hear so much about. What is your assessment of the risk that an increase in use of digital pathways will increase the health inequalities that many people face?

Adam Stachura mentioned the scale of the issue, given the number of over-60s who do not have a device, and Chris Mackie said that digital should always be a meaningful choice, so maybe they are interested in responding.

Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee

Continued Petitions

Meeting date: 9 March 2022

Sue Webber

That is right. We went out to see you as you got to the end of your long walk.

Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee

Continued Petitions

Meeting date: 9 March 2022

Sue Webber

Everyone was there. There were a lot of people.

It is tremendous that the committee has opened up and been so willing to endorse and support this young man’s dreams and to get the First Minister involved. With everything that we aspire to do as parliamentarians, when there is something as tangible as Callum’s petition, which will make a real difference to so many young people across the country, we would be foolhardy not to get on side and back it all the way.

Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee

Continued Petitions

Meeting date: 9 March 2022

Sue Webber

Thank you, convener. You can see why, when I first saw Callum’s Facebook posts back in May, not long after I got elected, I was so keen to do everything I could to help this young, inspiring boy to aspire to his dreams. I followed him diligently when he walked the John Muir way. We went out and met him, his puppy and his parents in East Lothian with my old dog.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Alternative Pathways to Primary Care

Meeting date: 8 March 2022

Sue Webber

Patient representatives in the first panel talked about health literacy and the fact that there might be—I am trying to find the words—“savvy patients” who are able to direct themselves to alternative pathways and are more aware of their conditions. However, there are people who are not in that position who still, ultimately, need to see the GP to get a primary diagnosis. In the process of promoting effective use of alternative pathways, how can we ensure that everyone’s route into primary healthcare is protected and that we do not discriminate against the people who need to see the GP in order that they understand what is going on? I am sure that you will all want to respond to that question.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Alternative Pathways to Primary Care

Meeting date: 8 March 2022

Sue Webber

I thank the witnesses for their comments so far. It has been really enlightening to have the reasons and justifications explained so concisely. That has made it clear to us where some of the issues lie.

Margaret McKay and Val Costello said that the long waiting times to see alternative health practitioners are also undermining the ability to alleviate the pressures on general practices, because everything is still funnelled through them. We know that patients are likely to default to their GP if they have to wait too long. What must happen if we are to make meaningful improvements to access to alternative health practitioners?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Alternative Pathways to Primary Care

Meeting date: 8 March 2022

Sue Webber

When we talk about inequalities, we are talking not only about patient awareness but about geographical variations in services. To what extent can equality of availability and access to alternative pathways be ensured? I am thinking particularly about some of the rural challenges that we face, and the lack of consistency.