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Professor McCartney, you said “employment deprived”. I do not understand that term. Could you clarify it for me, please?

We always seem to come back to data. It is vital for anything that we do, especially if we are looking to make changes. I have two questions.

One of the messages that we got from Audit Scotland was that an unwillingness or inability to share information, along with the lack of relevant data, means that there are major gaps in the information that is needed to inform improvements in social care. If we do not have that information, what data are you examining and how are you responding to Audit Scotland’s comment in your push forwards on a national care service?

My last question is, again, on data. According to the report on the national care service consultation, many respondents highlighted issues with the length of the questionnaire, the short space of time in which they could prepare a response, the lack of detail on proposals, and the nature of some questions that were thought to be leading the respondents to a particular answer. According to the section on feedback, 33 per cent of respondents said that they were dissatisfied with the consultation process.

That being the case, data is, again, important. How do you respond to a consultation that includes that type of feedback, and how do we go forward to ensure that we get the information that we want?

It is in the national care consultation.

Yes, I do. Minister, could you let me know, briefly, about the timeline for the data that you have just told us about?

I am truly concerned by recommendations that the new community health and social care boards should be in charge of general practitioner contractual arrangements. Integration is important but, with a few exceptions, the HSCPs have failed to engage well with practices. The GP contract is national, not local.

The British Medical Association, through its Scottish GP committee, has said that it was not consulted on the recommendation, and that it is against it. I believe that the Royal College of General Practitioners is against it, too. Why do you want to make those changes and what benefits do you envisage arising from them?

Good morning, minister. Let me give you an example of something that is, unfortunately, all too common. This example is from a home-help staff member, who told me that she gets only 15 minutes per client. She uses the term “client”, not “patient”, as do quite a lot of people—in fact, everyone does—in the sector.

The 15 minutes that the home help gets is for personal care. She puts food in the microwave, gives the medication and pills that are required—basically everything except giving the personal touch of having a sit down, holding a hand and having a gentle chat with the person, which might be their only contact with another human that day. The home help is in a huge rush to get to the next “client” because that travel time is not allocated time.

Now let us look at the other side of that coin—the patient perspective. The patient tells me that they feel rushed, as though there is no time for them and as though they are a burden. That is an example, but it is commonplace throughout our social care workforce. If both sides are saying that they feel rushed, is that acceptable? I assume that you will say that it is not acceptable, so how can we improve the situation in the short term, so that we can do things for people now and not have to wait for the big changes to occur?

Where are the bottlenecks on the patient journey through the NHS?

Cabinet secretary, I am glad that Pamela had a great experience but, unfortunately, she is a bit of an exception rather than the rule when it comes to long Covid. You mentioned the Hertfordshire model, which could be used throughout the country. In that model, much of the work is done virtually, because that is how patients want to access the clinic. Many long Covid patients are too tired to physically come into a hospital or clinic, so they cannot access those. Therefore, despite what we heard earlier, the Hertfordshire model could actually work throughout the country.

One of the big words in the guidelines that you referred to is “may”. Surely we need to get to a position in which, across Scotland, there is a clinic that GPs can refer patients to because, right now, what we have is not acceptable.