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At the moment, the local care board is a concept that you will firm out once you have had further discussions at those nine events. Is that correct?

There is no detail to it; “local care board” is just a title.

It is important to say that I am a practising GP. Dr Agur, you spoke about the pressures on GPs and the number of conditions that we need to be aware of, and I can give examples of those. People have come to the Parliament to press GPs to be more aware of chronic kidney disease and brain tumours, for example.

I am sure that you are aware that we do not always know that patients have had mesh. When we get our letters, we do not know what surgical procedure has taken place; all we know is that someone went into urology and has come out. Is it not better to also have a central access point for women to be able to call directly if they know that they have had surgery and they have had problems since then? That is an easy one—if someone tells me, “I have had problems since surgery,” my first thought is, “Surgery.” However, common things are common, and surgery is not always our first thought.

We have a specialist service here for women who have suffered complications with mesh, and I am looking at the difference between that and the use of other types of mesh in other types of surgery. When people hear the word “mesh”, they think that it applies to absolutely all mesh and all types of surgery. I am looking for your opinion as to whether we can reassure women that the use of mesh in other circumstances is very different and safe.

It really does make a difference.

My last question is for Jeff Ace. In NHS Dumfries and Galloway, 12 per cent of medical, dental and consultant roles and 11 per cent of allied healthcare professional roles are vacant. Given that you are in an even more rural area, what challenges do you face, and what are you doing to improve the situation?

So you have a plan for looking into what is happening.

Dr Lamont, I do not want to get into a comparison, but I am looking for reasoning. NHS England has established a number of specialist services for women with mesh complications. How many of those services have been rolled out? What differences do they have? If there are no differences, why is that?

I am not sure whether Dr Lamont or Dr Agur would be the best person to answer this. Dr Mathers referenced the urogynaecological specialist, but there has been a vacancy since July 2022. There is no consultant in post. How does that impact the service?

I have one final and, I hope, quick question for Dr Agur. We are talking about mesh specifically in this environment, in relation to all the concerns that we have and the specialist mesh service, but people are also concerned about the implantation of other devices and types of mesh in other types of surgery. Do you feel that those patients having mesh in different scenarios is safe and something that they should not be overly worried about?

I often hear staff say that it is, as they always describe it, the little things that make a huge difference. On my visit to University hospital Ayr, I noted that it had a fantastic canteen that provides hot food at night time. Does your hospital do that?