Seòmar agus comataidhean

If someone has road tax for their vehicle, whether or not it is a camper van, they are allowed to park it anywhere, as long as it is not causing an obstruction to a road or driveway. Therefore, under rule 15.7 of standing orders, I am happy to close the petition—

Convener, I am quite happy to close the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders—[Laughter.]—if any other committee members wish to back me.

I know that it is to do with contracts, but how difficult is it to get the workforce there and get accommodation for it? From speaking to people who stay in the area in which I am, I know that winter rates are cheap and that the communities rely on tourists in the summer. Therefore, workers were moved off the A9 and away and found it very difficult to get accommodation—they were having to travel. Having to travel huge distances to get to those sections is not an attractive prospect for anybody who is employed in that industry.

Yes.

I want to make two points. I have had mesh inside me for a long time following a hernia repair, and I am one of the 90 per cent of people for whom its use has been very successful. Indeed, it has changed my life. Therefore, I would definitely rule out a ban on the use of all mesh implants.

You have mentioned this already, convener, but when we write to the Scottish Association of Medical Directors, could we ask them about the very strict criteria that need to be met at Shouldice hospital before surgery can go ahead? If we implemented such strict criteria, would the public accept that? The fact is that many patients would be rejected for surgery on those grounds.

The committee has heard evidence that there are real pressures on the service in England because of a lack of pathologists to carry out post mortems. Can the Lord Advocate or Mr Shanks confirm that the pathology workforce is under the same pressure to carry out post mortems in Scotland?

As a client, you are procuring a service, so can you not determine how that service looks and change the ways of working to the approach that we have heard about in certain areas in England? You are procuring a service, so surely how that service looks is up to you. You can determine how it works.

Good morning. My questions are about the recovery plan and the progress that NHS boards have made. How accurate is Audit Scotland’s assessment that the October 2022 progress update does not fully reflect the scale of the challenges that boards have faced and the extent to which that has hampered progress towards recovery by many boards? I put that to Carol Potter first.

Are there any particular areas that you can highlight where good progress has been made? What are the reasons for that?

What impact did the Covid-19 pandemic have on patients at the state hospital and their treatment?