Chamber and committees

Okay. Professor Hiscox, you mentioned paediatric anaesthetist consultants, who might have to work in different NHS boards to achieve certain competencies or skills. Is it easy for anaesthetists to work across boards, when it comes to competency and inclusion? Do they have to do the training on infection prevention and control, fire safety and moving and handling, no matter where they are?

Thank you.

I want to pick up on the sports bra issue. Yesterday, I visited Wallace Hall academy and I spoke to five young women—Mika, Fern, Zena, Michaela and Daisy. They are all sixth-year students or thereabouts and they all participate in rugby and running. They love all sports. They are absolutely confident, informed and empowered, but they recognise that not all young women of their age are confident or empowered to speak up about their periods or about the need for a sports bra.

An interesting thing that they spoke about was that the school has purchased for year 1 students a specific sports uniform for physical education. That has helped with equalities and acted as a leveller, because the kids come from different primary schools and it is a way to engage them all on—literally—a level playing field. I would be interested to know whether you think that we need to look at the availability of sports bras, for instance, and sports uniforms as part of the Government’s uniform policy.

Good morning to you all. I will pick up on NRAC and some of the other information. The NHS Fife briefing says that the projected increase in the number of people over 65 is 30 per cent by 2043. That means an older and frailer population with more issues. For me, as an operating room nurse, that means hip replacements, knee replacements, cataract surgery and then some. When you are doing your financial planning, including in relation to NRAC, how do you deal with that projected need?

Another thing that the young women raised was that the boys who they play rugby or sport with or who are on the field at the same time as them are sometimes a bit sexist and misogynistic. I mentioned to the principal teacher, Barry Graham, the “Don’t Be That Guy” campaign, which is quite hard hitting because it is about harassment, sexual assault and sexual violence. He is going to take a look at that campaign, but is there room for something else that might not be as hard hitting, such as an equivalent campaign for teenage lads?

My final question is about the variety of sports that schools offer. It came up in the conversations that I had that, during the summer sports day, there were shot put and javelin events and a mixed-gender 400m relay, but also a tug of war. Not everybody wants to win a gold medal; some folk just want to participate and have a bit of fun, so Wallace Hall academy has implemented that. Can the Scottish Government do something to increase the variety of sports, taking on board the good practice in some schools, in order to get everybody not just competing but participating?

Good morning to the minister and to Andrew Sinclair. I will pick up on Evelyn Tweed’s questions about alcohol and alcohol advertising.

There are two big soft drinks companies, one of which supports the Olympic games and one of which seems to be in about all the mountain biking and soapbox racing in America. A lot of sponsorship money helps to support sport. However, I have been approached by people who say that those are health-harming products, and we have to consider that when we support sponsorship or advertising or are helping to get young women or any young people into sport. How do you feel about implementing restrictions on advertising for products that are not alcohol related, including soft drinks?

It is a quick question about financial planning. You talked about medication, which includes things such as insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitoring. I am a type 1 diabetic and have an insulin pump with continuous glucose monitoring; I have read that there is a 43 per cent reduction in the risk of fatal cardiovascular disease and a 29 per cent reduction in all-cause mortality when we use insulin via a pump. Therefore, we know that we can reduce complications by investing in pumps and such technology, but it costs more money. How do you plan that financially, and do we have a national map of CGM use in the various boards in order that we could see how they compare on complications reduction and roll-out of insulin pumps and CGM?

We have talked a little bit about Covid recovery, the challenges of performance in relation to pre-pandemic levels, and where we are currently. A lot of responses have touched on Covid. We absolutely cannot ignore Covid. We have just come through a pandemic, and we are still recovering. A lot of folk think that there will be an overnight fix, but there will not be.

I am interested in hearing your thoughts on the recent NHS overview audit, in which Audit Scotland stated:

“The Scottish Government did not engage fully with NHS boards on the preparation of the Recovery Plan”.

What do you think about that statement from Audit Scotland? Have you made changes to the recovery plan that adapt and evolve it, based on knowledge that we have learned from the pandemic?

Thank you.