The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Displaying 595 contributions
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 14 March 2023
Gillian Mackay
A part of the inquiry that I am interested in is how we build a movement toward sport for life, which is probably difficult to do for the age group that you were looking at. How can we better facilitate changes in activities that naturally happen during people’s lives—such as switching from one sport to another? Can we focus, in particular, on where following pathways into elite sport comes in for those young people in late primary school and early secondary school? Also, how do we ensure that they have the skills to be able to go out for a run or go to the gym, which are the physical activities that most people do weekly?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 14 March 2023
Gillian Mackay
They are using it for overall wellbeing.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 14 March 2023
Gillian Mackay
Obviously, among the other barriers for women coming out of university is when they go into a working environment and have to establish new routines, as is the case when they go into a different working environment and must establish a new routine. Everyone at the table would probably say that our current employment is definitely a barrier to our getting out and getting active. Would four-day weeks, flexible working and things like that provide more space to mothers, women with caring responsibilities and those of us who are just plan busy, in order that we could get out and prioritise our health a bit more?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 14 March 2023
Gillian Mackay
I agree. It is key that we tackle the big structural issues as well as individual behavioural issues. That comes down to the planning side and to the employment side.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Gillian Mackay
My comment is not specifically on this petition; it is on the others.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Gillian Mackay
Are there any areas relating to medicines and medical devices that you would like to be included in the remit of the patient safety commissioner that are not covered by the bill?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Gillian Mackay
On the back of what Tess White has just said, I think that a wider inquiry into rural healthcare services is really important, but I propose that we defer a decision on the petition because of the current work that is being done. The best start north review is based on maternity services in particular, and the minister, Maree Todd, has other pieces of work that are looking at wider issues, including abortion care and other women’s health needs. The other pieces of work that are being done could be lost in a wider inquiry. If those things develop, we might want to take evidence on them, and other issues could arise.
Given that those other pieces of work are still on-going, particularly the best start north review, I propose that we defer a decision on the petition so that we can pick it up again if there are other things going on.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Gillian Mackay
Dr Williams, how can the patient safety commissioner for Scotland complement the work of the Patient Safety Commissioner for England and the MHRA, and how will the commissioner interact with the work of clinicians up here?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Gillian Mackay
Is there potential for conflict in the relationship, particularly given the overlap between the oversight roles of the two commissioners and the interaction with the MHRA?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Gillian Mackay
We should consider the issue as part of a wider piece of potential work. The petition is broad and covers a number of areas.
In the evidence session that we had with the cabinet secretary, we explored why some of the challenges are not purely healthcare recruitment issues but issues to do with life in rural environments in the first place. If we were to incorporate the petition into a wider piece of work, it would be interesting to hear from other ministers about how their portfolios could support recruitment in rural areas and support people to consider working in rural and remote areas. At the moment, it is people who come from or have a connection with such communities who take up recruitment and training opportunities and then go back to the community, rather than our making working in those areas an easy choice.