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How we use PAs and AAs in NHS Scotland will be determined by us. That will be the approach that we will take through the group that we have set up. As I mentioned, it will consider the role of PAs and AAs.

We have taken a very different approach from that of the UK Government, about whose approach to the matter the BMA has flagged up concerns. The use of PAs and AAs is a key part of the UK Government’s workforce plan, and a lot of concerns have been raised about the proposed fairly rapid expansion of their use. I understand that, which is why we have taken a different approach here in Scotland. I have outlined to the BMA that we will take much more of an incremental and evidence-based approach to how PAs and AAs will be used in NHS Scotland and how they will be deployed and utilised in the workforce. We have put in place a process to manage that.

We do not intend to replicate the rapid expansion of the use of PAs and AAs that the UK Government is planning in NHS England. We are taking a much more evidence-based approach to their use and how that will be defined, which will be much more limited.

I go back to my earlier answer. There was a debate around that, and it was part of the consultation in which we asked for feedback on which body would be the most appropriate to regulate PAs and AAs. The very clear majority—just under 60 per cent—said that the GMC should be responsible for that. The GMC has also been clear that it believes that it is capable of carrying out that regulatory function, and it has already begun putting arrangements in place to manage the process. It gave evidence to the committee, and we have met with it and discussed the matter.

I used to be regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council; it regulates a range of bodies and different professional groups, and I do not think that that causes confusion for the public. The idea of another regulator taking on an additional bit of regulatory work is not greatly difficult for the public to understand.

No—it will not be sufficient. It is one aspect. Part of the challenge around social care comes from the fact that we, as a society, have not valued it as much as we value other professional groups, particularly when comparing social care with health. That is a wider societal issue, which we have to be honest and open about, but the consequences of not valuing social care are now clear, given the challenge that it now faces.

Pay is one part of the matter. The other important aspect is to see social care as a career of choice, with a career pathway and progression and opportunities stemming from that. We are exploring whether we could do more to create career pathways in social care, to encourage people to go into it and build up experience within it, and to pursue opportunities to go into other professional groupings.

One area of work that we are considering is the potential creation of pathways into regulated professions, perhaps through approaches such as the nursing apprenticeship model, so that someone’s extensive experience in social care will allow them to progress into some of the regulated professions through a different route from those that are available at present. Creating career pathways is critical to encouraging people to go into social care.

As I say, pay is one part of it, but social care has to be a credible career option for people, and we need to do a lot more around that. Some of the work that we are doing is aimed at encouraging people who are going into social care by providing them with specific routes into other professional groupings if that is what they choose at some point in the future.

Is this in relation to people with long Covid not having access to—

Do you mean for long Covid?

We are on a path to understanding long Covid much more effectively. You might be aware that quite a bit of global research is taking place to understand the impact of long Covid and the most appropriate treatments for it.

My understanding is that, as it stands, no single treatment type is appropriate for long Covid patients. We often have to try to provide a holistic form of treatment. For example, the service that is being offered in Glasgow—the long Covid pathway—has a range of different clinical inputs, from physiotherapy, through occupational therapy to psychological services. All of those are about trying to address some of the issues that can present with patients who experience long Covid.

It is fair to say that we are in a learning environment on how we treat long Covid. From some of the patients with long Covid whom I have met, I know that its presentation is variable and they often have different needs. That is why some of our NHS boards look to provide services much more holistically with a range of different supports that can be provided to patients and to tailor those to best reflect patients’ circumstances.

We are all learning more about long Covid. That will continue to influence how we intend to deliver services for patients with long Covid in the future.

The majority of health boards have those pathways in place now. Those that do not are carrying out the work at the moment and I would expect those pathways to be in place this year. The funding has been made available for them this year as part of the £10 million programme so there is no reason for the boards not to achieve that. We will continue to monitor their progress.

Going back to my earlier point, I make it clear that the clinical advice not just at a Scottish and UK levels but at the global level is that Covid-19 should now be managed as a seasonal infection and in the way that we manage other seasonal infections such as flu, because the level of vaccinations that have now been provided to the population gives us much greater protection. Our intention is to continue to manage Covid-19 on that basis.

If the clinical advice changes at some point and we have to take further action, we will respond to that. However, the present advice is that we should continue to manage things as we are managing them and in the way that we manage other seasonal infections.

The responsibility for the delivery of primary care within the local area, and the contract, is directly with the health board. I would expect the local community to engage with the health board, and the health board to engage with them, around how they are addressing the issue of concern around ensuring adequate general practice services in their area. I would expect the health board to be proactive in doing that. If it is not and there is a need for it to do so, I would be more than happy to ensure that it engages with the community in Braemar. It is important that there is a level of local understanding of the most appropriate way to deliver services locally in the primary care setting.

As I said earlier, we are taking forward a programme of work to tackle the backlog and waiting lists, but we can see that significant progress has been made across a range of specialities, and we are working with boards to support and sustain that.

Our healthcare system is experiencing challenges with the recruitment of staff in the same way that the health system across the UK is experiencing real difficulties. Some specialities are not just causing difficulties for the UK; there are global challenges because of the lack of specialists in those areas. However, we are taking things forward. For example, the fill rate in our speciality recruitment programme is at 93 per cent, which is a higher fill rate at this point of the cycle than we have ever been at previously. We have another fill rate to go, and it will be finalised in November, so we are making very good progress towards being an attractive location for clinicians to come for training and support.

Our NHS, however, will experience very significant challenges this winter. What are we doing to address that? We are expanding things such as the hospital at home service and see-and-treat programmes with the Scottish Ambulance Service. We are working closely with our health boards on the preparations that they are putting in place for their A and E departments, which often feel the brunt of these challenges.

We started our winter planning programme earlier than ever before. One of the first pieces of work I commissioned when I took over the portfolio was our winter programme, given the very challenging winter that we went through last year. We have taken forward that planning jointly with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and, just a few weeks ago, we had a winter summit that brought together all the key stakeholders in health and social care from across the country with the decision makers to look at planning and managing some of the challenges that we will face in the course of the winter.

It will be a challenging time. I am not going to shy away from that fact and I am not going to kid on that it will not be difficult and that things will be perfect. However, we have brought forward the planning and done it in a joint way that we have never done before to try to mitigate some of the challenges that we face.

You will be aware that we were starting our Covid vaccination and flu vaccination programmes earlier, so some of that was already at an earlier stage than in other parts of the UK. As a result of the new Covid variant, we brought forward the Covid vaccination programme for those who are more vulnerable, but we were always one of the first parts of the UK to move forward with the winter vaccination programme; I got my flu vaccine just yesterday. Anyone here who intends to get the flu vaccine or the Covid vaccine, please take up the offer that is being made.

We are doing what we can to plan for the winter and the challenges that inevitably will lie ahead. We are also trying to put in place programmes of work to deal with the large number of people who continue to wait extended periods for treatment, while we also deal at the same time with the recruitment challenges that are being experienced not just in Scotland but across the whole of the UK, particularly in certain specialities. So far we have made good progress, but we still have to do a lot more.