Skip to main content

Language: English / Gàidhlig

Loading…

Seòmar agus comataidhean

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

Criathragan Hide all filters

Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 2 April 2025
Select which types of business to include


Select level of detail in results

Displaying 1148 contributions

|

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013 (Post-legislative Scrutiny)

Meeting date: 4 June 2024

Emma Harper

Thank you.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

National Health Service Waiting Times

Meeting date: 4 June 2024

Emma Harper

We are running out of time—okay.

Max Warner, you have done modelling around investment in prevention to keep folk healthier. What modelling has been done to show that up-front investment will prevent cancer, reduce obesity and diagnose type 2 diabetes earlier, and have you done modelling that shows that preventing things now will save £X in terms of secondary care?

10:45  

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

National Health Service Waiting Times

Meeting date: 4 June 2024

Emma Harper

Thank you. The convener is giving me the eye, so I think that I should make that my final question.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

National Health Service Waiting Times

Meeting date: 4 June 2024

Emma Harper

You said that cervical cancer screening uptake has reduced, but I am aware that there is self-sampling research going on now, and there is also research about urine testing for the human papillomavirus. Would that help? It is less invasive than traditional screening, so can we chivvy along that research so that we can also use either self-sampling or urine testing to screen people?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

National Health Service Waiting Times

Meeting date: 4 June 2024

Emma Harper

I have a quick question for Max Warner, as I am conscious that he has not said a lot.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

National Health Service Waiting Times

Meeting date: 4 June 2024

Emma Harper

Good morning to you all. I am interested in the good work that is being done on establishing rapid cancer diagnostic services. They were launched in Dumfries and Galloway, Ayrshire and Arran, Lanarkshire and the Borders in 2021, since when the uptake for bowel cancer screening seems to have become the highest ever in Scotland.

On 30 April 2022, there was a 67 per cent uptake in people returning their bowel screening kits, which is the highest in the programme’s history. Do we have enough data about breast screening, bowel screening and other screening uptake and how that leads to the requirement for intervention? I am looking at Katie Cuthbertson, because I got most of that information from the centre for sustainable delivery.

09:45  

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

National Health Service Waiting Times

Meeting date: 4 June 2024

Emma Harper

I must remind everybody that I am still a registered nurse, and I worked in the operating theatre and recovery room in NHS Dumfries and Galloway. I am looking at information that says that patients are sicker than they were pre-pandemic and that they have multiple comorbidities. How does making a patient ready for surgery affect waiting times and preparation? Is that a factor that we need to think about? I see Peter Hastie, Katie Cuthbertson and Professor Din nodding.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

National Health Service Waiting Times

Meeting date: 4 June 2024

Emma Harper

You have answered a lot of questions about cancer treatment waiting times, and we have said a little about pre-operative screening. I would like to pick up on what Sandesh Gulhane said about the perioperative environment, I have worked there, so I know that you need lab and X-ray support, recovery rooms and pre-operative support. That is why elective surgeries are not done at 10 o’clock at night. The capacity of the perioperative environment depends on the wider team. I know orthopaedic surgeons who would be really happy to just do arthroscopies and hips and knees all day, but the wider team is required for those.

Where should there be improvements? What could be done to improve cancer treatment approaches? We have addressed the diagnostic part, but then there is intervention. We might need more CT scanners, but we also need people to read the scans and diagnose patients from them. The situation is complex, but can you suggest anything that could be done differently? I will come first to Katie Cuthbertson and then to Professor Din.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013 (Post-legislative Scrutiny)

Meeting date: 4 June 2024

Emma Harper

I am interested in the improvement plan, which has been updated for 2023 to 2027. I would like to hear your thoughts about how that update is different to previous plans. Does it allow people to have more choice about and control of the plans for their care?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

National Health Service Waiting Times

Meeting date: 4 June 2024

Emma Harper

I want to ask about technological innovation and the use of artificial intelligence, which could help to reduce bed days, for instance. Last week Dr Tom Mackay, Catherine Kelly and Dr Mary Melville from NHS Borders gave a presentation to the lung health cross-party group, which I co-convene, about keeping chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma patients out of hospital. They showed us that, among that small amount of patients, the implementation of artificial intelligence technology saved 236 bed days and removed the need for patients in remote and rural areas to have to make 50-mile or 100-mile round trips to get to hospital. I should say that patients in the NHS Dumfries and Galloway area have to travel similar distances.

What are your thoughts about the implementation of technology such as AI for out-of-hospital assessments, and can you tell us what other exciting technology is out there? We know that there are research studies about using such technology to examine X-rays to diagnose lung cancer, for instance. I would be interested to hear about something positive as we look at helping our NHS to address waiting times and so on.