Seòmar agus comataidhean

Staying on the subject of staffing, recruitment and retention, I note that research by the Nuffield Trust that was published in November 2022 found that Brexit had worsened the UK’s shortage of doctors in key areas of care. It suggests that about 4,000 European doctors have chosen not to work for the NHS. Separately, data that was released by the Nursing and Midwifery Council last May found that the UK has 58,000 fewer nurses than it would have had if the numbers arriving pre-Brexit had continued.

Are we seeing the effect of that on our NHS in Scotland? What, if anything, are you able to do to attract European Union nationals to come back or to come to work in the UK and in Scotland in particular?

Tess White and Emma Harper have brief supplementary questions.

We will move on to our final topic. I will bring in Sandesh Gulhane first.

We will move on to workforce issues later in the session.

Emma Harper has a supplementary question on that issue.

Item 2 is the first of our two sessions on winter planning. I welcome to the meeting Nicky Connor, who is the director of Fife health and social care partnership; David Gibson, who joins us remotely, who is chief social work officer at Argyll and Bute Council, chair of the workforce and resources standing committee at Social Work Scotland, and is here representing Social Work Scotland; John-Paul Loughrey, who is also joining us remotely and is vice-president for Scotland of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, and is here representing the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and Faculties in Scotland; and Pamela Milliken, who is the chief officer of Aberdeenshire health and social care partnership.

We move straight to questions from Sandesh Gulhane.

I know that this is unusual, cabinet secretary, but would your diary be able to accommodate an extra ten minutes for the committee?

That concludes our themed questions, but we have a couple of brief supplementary questions on other issues. I believe that Sandesh Gulhane has the first.

When the committee took evidence last week from the Scottish Ambulance Service’s chief executive, I asked her—I should now declare my interest as a registered mental health nurse—about the impact of mental health assessment units and the redesign of mental health unscheduled care on the Scottish Ambulance Service. Today, the service wrote back to the committee to say that, in May alone, it has

“seen a reduction in patients conveyed”—

to A and E, I assume—of 50.2 per cent, and that

“The impact of this has reduced the overall service time and released 34 hours of crew-time in total back in to service”.

That is before we look at the impact on patients being able to access appropriate services the first time they ask for them or more speedily. How can the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland continue to improve access to pathways for urgent and unscheduled mental health care and build on some of the gains that have already been made?

This is the committee’s final meeting before summer recess. At our next meeting, on 5 September, we will undertake scrutiny of winter planning and preparedness in health and social care.

That concludes the public part of the meeting.

Good morning, and welcome to the 23rd meeting in 2023 of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee. I have received no apologies.

Today, we have a session with the Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care, Michael Matheson, further to our recent scrutiny of front-line national health service boards. I welcome the cabinet secretary. With him are John Burns, who is the chief operating officer of NHS Scotland; Stephen Lea-Ross, who is deputy director health workforce in the Scottish Government; and Richard McCallum, who is director of health finance and governance at the Scottish Government.

I invite the cabinet secretary to make a brief opening statement.