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Seòmar agus comataidhean

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 21 December 2024
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Displaying 595 contributions

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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Women’s Health Champion

Meeting date: 21 November 2023

Gillian Mackay

Professor Glasier, I was struck by your earlier comment about intersectionality versus the siloed way in which the NHS often works. I know that your priorities fall naturally into three large chunks, but how do you see them working across each other? Earlier, you highlighted the example of women with PCOS being at higher risk of heart disease; they are also at higher risk of diabetes and such conditions. Quite often, once you are diagnosed, you are given tablets that have wonderful side effects and are then left without any other form of follow-up. Are you and the team actively looking at such crossovers, and what progress is being made on some of those areas?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Healthcare in Remote and Rural Areas

Meeting date: 21 November 2023

Gillian Mackay

That is great. Pathways are sometimes opaque, to say the least, even when you live in the central belt and go to a major hospital for out-patient treatment. When there are extra complexities of distance, as there are with some of the smaller hospitals, things are even more challenging to navigate.

What work is going on to ensure that the populations that we are talking about have transparent pathways that suit their needs, and to ensure that ageing populations know where, when and how far they have to go for their treatment?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Healthcare in Remote and Rural Areas

Meeting date: 21 November 2023

Gillian Mackay

Finally, we know that feedback from patients is essential to on-going service delivery and evolution, but in some communities the doctors and nurses on whom people are giving feedback are their neighbours, and are much more closely related to the community than they might be in more populous areas. Is there active work being done on seeking views from people, so that their feedback on changes can be taken into account? People might be apprehensive because of that close relationship.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Women’s Health Champion

Meeting date: 21 November 2023

Gillian Mackay

That is great. Thanks, convener.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Healthcare in Remote and Rural Areas

Meeting date: 21 November 2023

Gillian Mackay

Thanks, convener, and good morning, panel.

Given the changing demographics that we are seeing, how can we continue to move more services towards the community—not just into primary care but into some of our smaller hospitals in remote and rural locations? They are often much closer to communities than, for example, Raigmore is to Sutherland.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Vaping (Public Health Impact)

Meeting date: 14 November 2023

Gillian Mackay

I want to build on what we have just heard from Professor Banks. I have hosted a couple of round-table discussions on vaping, at which parents and professionals have raised concerns about flavours, price promotions and the fact that vapes are being marketed to children, and how those issues interlink in the context of marketing to children.

From a very quick look at a vape-selling website—to access which, incidentally, it takes only one click on a button to say, “Yes, I’m 18”—I found that the flavours available include Rainbow, Orange Gummy Bear, Grape Gummy Bear and Prime; any parent who is watching will know how popular that soft drink is with children and young people. Other flavours include Vimto Crush, which, of course, is a brand of juice that is often given to children, and Supermix, which shares its name with the Haribo sweets. There are even Christmas flavour special editions popping up. There are also multibuy and cashback offers on disposable vapes.

To what extent does the panel believe that a ban on disposable vapes would make a difference to children and young people and stop some of that marketing?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Vaping (Public Health Impact)

Meeting date: 14 November 2023

Gillian Mackay

The pervasiveness of marketing and product placement has also been raised. The Advertising Standards Authority website says that

“ads for nicotine-containing e-cigarettes that are not licensed as medicines ... are prohibited”

on

“On-demand television”

as well as newspapers and magazines, the internet and advertising by email and text message. In reality, however, young people are exposed through product placement on TV shows and seeing people use vapes in YouTube videos, on Instagram and in Twitch streams. On top of that, I am sure that we have all seen shops with windows full of vapes, and signs on doors advertising that vapes are back in stock. Back in the day, they would have been advertising that Pokémon cards were back in stock—which definitely shows my age.

What it means is repeated exposure for young people every day as they walk around their local environment. Could more be done to limit that exposure, and do social media companies in particular need to take action to make sure either that there is a content warning on videos that nicotine products are being used or that it becomes against community guidelines to use them on Twitch streams or in YouTube videos?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 7 November 2023

Gillian Mackay

What are the criteria for undertaking a full or partial CRWIA and will those criteria change if the UNCRC bill does come into force?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 7 November 2023

Gillian Mackay

What assessment of the new unit has been undertaken in relation to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Act 2012 (Post-legislative Scrutiny)

Meeting date: 7 November 2023

Gillian Mackay

I will follow on from the previous two questions. Were any comparative studies undertaken or commissioned to compare how the money raised in other countries by minimum unit pricing is used, or is that a gap that you feel should be looked into?