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I want to start with Dr Buist. Many of these problems existed before last winter and before Covid. What should the Government be doing that it is not doing to prioritise in order to get through the winter?

Secondly, should we be looking at system change and, if so, should we be doing that now or should we wait and just put all our energy into getting through the winter? By “system change”, I am referring to an article that the previous chief executive of NHS Scotland, Paul Gray, wrote in October in which he set out the need for system change, highlighting the primary care systems in Alaska and Sweden and saying that such systems can deliver. Where do we as politicians strike the balance, and what should the priorities be? Can we do both things?

On you go.

If a nightclub owner did not enforce the passport, they would be in difficulty. All I will say to you is that you need to take the same approach to retailers. If you are not prepared to take that approach, we will see people ignoring the fact that they should be wearing face coverings in shops, particularly—as I have seen first hand—people in our younger generations.

Coming to my last point, what kind of pressure is being put on the NHS as a result of the growth of private healthcare in Scotland? I read just recently that demand rocketed in the period from April to June this year by more than 1,100. There were 3,400 patients, which was up from 2,300 over the same period last year. The figure for cataract surgery, for example, was up 85 per cent in private hospitals; the figure for hip replacement rose by 144 per cent.

In this country we seem to be moving to a position where the private sector is investing more and more, and there is more growth. That must be putting pressure on NHS staffing. Are you content about the growing situation where the only way that someone who needs a hip replacement or some other kind of medical treatment can get it any time soon is by going private and buying it, if they have the money. For those who cannot afford it, that goes against the very principles upon which the NHS was established.

I have a quick question. Returning to schools and the short-term, or the here and now, as we head into winter, the Scottish Government has continued the policy that face coverings should be worn in schools, but what is your immediate advice for education authorities? Education authorities have property managers that manage the school estate, but do they have the required skills and knowledge, or do we need to bring in advisers? Earlier, Murdo Fraser mentioned a figure of £10 million, which is not a lot. What would you advise the Government and education authorities to do in the short or immediate term as we approach winter?

As far as the legislation is concerned, genuine concerns have been expressed about the lack of scrutiny and the lack of evidence to support its objectives. As we have seen this morning, you cannot just claim that the increase in vaccination rates amongst young people is down to the scheme. There is also a danger that if organisations, companies and so on start to mandate the use of the vaccination passport among their employees, enforcement will become the only tool in the box.

That is the main point that I want to make: I am not convinced that the Government is on top of the other measures that have been put in place for the majority of people who do not go to the venues where the vaccination passports are used. Those people are still being put at risk. For example, I have previously raised the issue of retail, and shop workers are still telling me about people, particularly the younger generation, going into shops without face coverings. Indeed, I have seen that with my own eyes.

Going back to Brian Whittle’s earlier point about the best use of resources, can you tell me what resources are being put in to ensure that these other measures are effective? When a senior member of the UK Government’s advisory board resigned the other day, one of the key points that he made was that face coverings were not mandatory in England when they should be. Although they are mandatory here, people are simply ignoring that. The passport is easy to enforce, because nightclubs and other venues have to do so or pay the consequences, but lots of other companies and retail outlets elsewhere are simply ignoring things, with staff being told that they cannot approach people to tell them to wear a face covering. The more that that happens, the more that people will not do it.

With regard to vaccine hesitancy, are you doing enough to counter the anti-vaxxers and the messages that they are putting out? There will always be people who see this as a big conspiracy and so on—you will never sort that—but the misinformation that they are putting out is spreading on social media. I am amazed at the number of people who are quoting stuff at me that sounds very plausible, and that sort of thing is growing. As I have seen at first hand, there is a massive danger of your taking your eye off the ball on vaccination uptake and the other measures that I would argue are far more important in countering the anti-vax messages out there and the very real threat to the vaccine itself.

You need to look at retail, but I have two other points. My first is on the policy that the Government has announced on redirecting people from accident and emergency departments. Dr Andrew Buist, the chair of the British Medical Association’s Scottish general practitioners committee, has said:

“This is about proper resourcing across the whole system. A and E is under massive pressure, so are GPs and this should not result in everyone being redirected from A and E to their GP practice.”

Last week, we discussed with Professor Leitch, among others, the difficulties that people are having in trying to get face-to-face appointments. Will the policy put more pressure on other parts of the system? Is the Government looking at the whole of the NHS? If the Government is trying to redirect people and keep them out of accident and emergency departments, but they cannot then be signposted to where they need to go, what is the point?

I simply say to you that we on this committee have been warning for weeks now that, if primary care and community care are failing, people will end up at the door of accident and emergency—and that is what we are seeing happening. If they are then being sent back into another part of the health service that is failing, that is not going to work.

I will come now to my third point.

Some people, but—

What if it is someone in your family who has been trying to get an appointment but cannot get one, who might discover, when they eventually get to the hospital, that they have stage 2 cancer, or whatever, that could have been diagnosed earlier? The issue is coming up again and again: people are struggling.

I understand that a letter was sent from Dr Buist and the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care to GPs, but it is not just about clinical choice; there is a responsibility on the Government. When people feel ill and feel that they need to have a face-to-face appointment with a medical person, it is the responsibility of the Government to ensure that those people can access face-to-face appointments. Surely that is the case, minister?