Seòmar agus comataidhean

I do not know whether anyone else wants to respond.

That is great.

In the interests of time, I will ask a quick-fire question; I hope that everybody will forgive me for putting them on the spot. We have spoken about housing and people acting up a band or two. What is your one ask of workforce planning—one key thing that would really help in your own disciplines in remote and rural areas?

Good morning. For each of your disciplines, what are the specific challenges of working in a remote and rural area in relation to providing both routine care and specialist care for less frequently encountered conditions?

A couple of you said that, quite often, workers are lone workers. They are often out in the community or working in quite small general practices, and they might be th\e only representative of their profession in a multidisciplinary team. Are we properly supporting those individuals at the moment?

Derek Laidler, I will come to you first, because you shook your head. If we are not supporting those individuals at the moment, what needs to be put in place to support them and help them to develop the skills that there are in other health boards in which some of the training, learning and support pathways are taken for granted?

Good morning. What impact is the ageing population currently having on healthcare services in remote and rural areas? As the ageing population increases, how is it likely to continue to affect services? I ask Dr Makin first.

That is great. Thank you. I think Dr MacGilleEathain wants to come in.

That is really useful. Thank you. If any of those pieces of work that you referenced could be sent to the committee, we would be really grateful.

Do any of the other panel members want to come in on that, before I move on?

Thank you.

In designing services, what do we need to do now in order to address the ageing population, and what barriers are there currently to designing services that would meet the needs of older people in remote and rural areas? I ask Dr Makin first.