Seòmar agus comataidhean

Perhaps I can move to Professor de Londras for my next question. Now that we understand what legislation is required to address the pandemic, would it not be more appropriate for it to lie dormant now and give the Parliament the potential to resurrect it quickly, as we have done in the past, should such a pandemic come along?

I turn to Anthony Smith for my final question. One of the concerns is that the impact of Covid restrictions on non-Covid health issues is still being collated. What are your views on the impact of bringing in this legislation before we can make any judgments in that respect? The use of the word “proportionate” with regard to the restrictions that the Scottish ministers might be required to bring in is, I suggest, subjective, and I feel that, under such a provision, they would not have to seek any advice. For example, with any requirement to submit to certain medical interventions, such a judgment will be subjective—albeit that the threshold might be higher—and the Scottish ministers will be able to make those decisions on their own.

I am happy to leave it there, convener.

Good morning, Deputy First Minister and colleagues. I will take this opportunity to extend the conversation that we had with our previous panel about lessons learned and what we can do in the future. In most of the submissions that we had from experts, the word “anecdotal” appears a lot regarding the collection of data and what is happening, especially on what is happening with non-Covid-related conditions, and I note from the written evidence that

“deaths from other conditions may have increased”,

although the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh is

“not aware of any published data to support this.”

This is an extension of work that was done by the Health and Sport Committee in the previous session of the Parliament on collection of data. Fortunately, one of the experts speaking to us this morning raised the issue of the IT system that is currently available in the NHS, and words such as “clunky” came out. There are three different systems that the NHS works with just now. Looking ahead, I think that it would be beneficial if one of the investments that are made is to deliver an IT system that allows the proper collection and deployment of appropriate data. Covid has taught us that data is incredibly important.

I know that the Government was considering this in the previous session; I wonder where we are with the potential development of a new IT system for the NHS.

That is very helpful, as it sets up the direction of travel in which we were wanting to go. That concerns the collection and analysis of data. We did a lot of work on the Health and Sport Committee in the previous session, before Covid, on Scotland possibly behind the curve in our ability to collect data. When approaching a challenge, we must be able to quantify what the challenge is in the first place.

Is the Scottish Government collecting data or setting up indicators that are adequate to establish the extent of the health impacts that are not directly related to Covid-19? Is one of the points of learning that we need to take from Covid that we need to be better at gathering and quantifying data?

In the evidence to the committee, I was struck by the suggestion that patients are now presenting with more acute conditions than they were pre-pandemic. I suppose that I could ask any of the witnesses about that, but I will start with Dr Miles.

I do not know whether any of the other witnesses wish to contribute. Professor Elder? It seems that everybody wants in. Professor Elder can go first.

Healthcare professionals definitely vented some frustration this morning at the interface between primary and secondary care and the inability of secondary care to access primary care data when a patient re-presents. I worked in this area before my time in Parliament, and what interests me is how we get the ability to port that information and data. Covid has highlighted and exacerbated the issue and, looking ahead and thinking about the lessons learned that you referred to, Deputy First Minister, I think that we have a very good opportunity to look at how and what data is collected and how it is accessed. That will require an IT system that is universally applicable to the whole of the country, which is not the case at the moment. Where are we with the development of that kind of structure?

I will finish here, convener, but I would encourage the Deputy First Minister and the health secretary to look back at the Health and Sport Committee’s work in the previous parliamentary session. Listening to this morning’s evidence, I have to say that the sort of universality of access that you have described is not the case in Scotland. If you input data in Glasgow, it cannot be accessed in Edinburgh and has to be reinput over here.

We are getting into an area here, but I think—it is not a criticism—that there is an opportunity to consider a system-wide change that would be to the huge benefit of our population and our NHS workers.

Does any other witness want to comment on that?