Seòmar agus comataidhean

Yes—I am happy for us to move on.

The public know that the NHS has been under extreme pressure for the past two years. As we hear more about the impact that that is having on staff, is there a risk that that will impact recruitment? How do we persuade people that the NHS, primary care and the sectors that you all work in and represent are still great places to work? How do we continue to attract people into health professions? Could I go to Julie Mosgrove first, please?

I thank all the panel members for giving us their thoughts. Some respondents to the committee’s survey expressed a pretty negative view of social prescribing. Some said that it was not the type of care that they wanted or expected to be offered when seeking help from their GP. One respondent said that they would be “insulted” if they were directed to those services. Another said that it represented an “easy way out” for the GP.

The benefits of social prescribing are well documented. Does the panel think that the negative attitudes towards social prescribing stem from a lack of awareness of it or explanation of the benefits? Does there need to be a greater culture shift with regard to what care people can expect in accessing their GP?

I will go to Hannah Tweed first, as she is nodding lots.

I have heard GPs raise another concern about social prescribing, which is that it takes less time to explain a drug prescription than it does to explain a method of social prescribing, such as a nature prescription. Is lack of GP time a barrier to patients understanding and engaging with social prescribing? Are the rationale behind and benefits of social prescribing being properly explained to patients? How can we raise awareness of social prescribing if GPs have limited time to explain it properly?

Dr Williams mentioned links workers, but, with their limited capacity and the financial strain that people are facing as a result of the cost of living situation, there is concern that much of their time is being taken up with helping people to apply for benefits, as a result of which they do not have as much time to engage with social prescribing. What are the panel’s thoughts on that? Do we simply need more links workers, or should that part of their role be separated out and allocated to, for example, welfare rights advisers in GP practices? Perhaps Wendy Panton can respond first.

Good morning, panel. What do you see as the main barriers to GPs engaging with social prescribing? That question is perhaps for Dr Williams in the first instance.

This has already been touched on, but I am concerned about the inverse care law. As services come under increasing strain and become more difficult to access because of waiting lists and practitioners having to see more people with more complex issues, and as the system becomes more complicated to navigate, with people expected to self-refer to different services, is there a risk of the inverse care law becoming more entrenched and those with lower levels of health literacy becoming less likely to engage with health services? If so, how can we mitigate that risk? Perhaps Hannah Tweed can answer that question first.

Thank you, convener. As we have already touched on various issues to do with marketing and sponsorship, I will squish some of my questions together so that we can try to cover everything.

The SHAAP report on alcohol marketing during the six nations championship has been referenced. Do you believe that there should be a full ban on alcohol sponsorship of sport? Given that it can be lucrative and many sports clubs are facing challenging financial circumstances, do you have views on how we can encourage clubs to move away from such sponsorship? Would it be best to achieve a full ban through legislation? If not, what mechanism should be used?

What are your views on other preventative measures, such as a social responsibility levy on retailers? The Scottish Government has stated that it will take action to improve alcohol labelling. What impact could mandatory alcohol labelling have on alcohol harm? What changes would you like to see in that regard?

I will briefly pick up on something that Donald Macaskill said. For some care workers, there is a lot of recording of visits. It is often to support families in terms of knowing what has happened during visits, but it can be used to try to keep track of workers because of mistrust in them. How do we improve the culture for care workers in particular, as we go forward?