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Do you think that there is a role for us, as MSPs, with regard to our connectivity on social media? Sometimes social media is not the best platform for communicating things, but social media could be used in a different, more positive way to support good communication. I was recently at an event in Dumfries and Galloway at which Dr Heather Currie spoke to 100 women in the room about the menopause. She is a total champion for destigmatising menopause and communicating an understanding about what it is all about. As MSPs, do we, too, have a role in communication?

I will pick up on ScotGEM. I recently met the chief executive officer of NHS Dumfries and Galloway, Jeff Ace, who said that the retention of ScotGEM graduates in Dumfries and Galloway was excellent.

I have an article here that says that 55 people have completed the first four-year graduate entry to medicine programme, which is unique to Scotland. My colleagues in Ireland, as part of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, are looking to Scotland to learn about ScotGEM so that they can maybe implement it elsewhere.

I am interested in your findings regarding ScotGEM. Is it successful? Has it proved to be supporting rural recruitment for general practice across either side of the central belt?

Good morning, everybody, and good morning to Pam Nicoll online.

I am interested in issues around the impact of the national centre for remote and rural healthcare. I am thinking about actions, the delivery of the strategy and plans. We have had previous papers, including papers from the remote and rural areas resources initiative and the review of the 1912 Dewar commission paper, for example. Professor Jason Leitch has spoken about the Nuka system of care in Alaska, which is about community-owned delivery of healthcare rather than it being done to people. I remind everybody that I am a nurse—I remember Professor Jason Leitch talking to us about rural healthcare in the late 1990s.

I am interested in how NES will ensure that the work of the centre focuses not only on strategy development but on actions, delivery and impact.

You mentioned monitoring and evaluating whatever is implemented. We have had a permanent group looking at rural healthcare for 16 years. How are we monitoring and evaluating that?

I will roll that in with my final question. How will the centre work with integration joint boards and local authorities to ensure that the work is delivered directly at the point that it is needed, which is in our remote and rural areas—fae Shetland tae Stranraer, for instance?

That is fine. That was a good enough answer—thank you.

Some of my questions on implementation and evaluation have already been covered. I am looking at the interim report from August 2023, which, obviously, covers the progress that has been made. I am interested in how you see implementation and evaluation going forward. I know that you do quarterly blogs. I know that there is a lot going on—I find it amazing just looking at the subjects being covered in the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee and elsewhere—but how important is it to communicate the progress that is being made, so that people know what is being achieved?

I have a quick supplementary to pick up on what Ruth Maguire said about menopause, endometriosis and PCOS. What work do you do or are you responsible for with women whose first language isnae English? How do we support them to have better care?

You work with the third sector, but I will ask about local authorities. I counted that seven of the 32 councils have a menopause plan. Are you responsible for supporting local authorities to raise awareness about menopause, for instance, with a plan?

I am happy with that, convener.

Earlier, I talked about smoking cessation and questions that are asked when people are admitted to hospital, for example. Do the colours and the sweetie flavours that you have talked about inhibit cessation of nicotine device use? How can we support a better transition to help people to move away from cigarettes? I know that some people use e-cigarettes to help smoking cessation, but where are we now with regard to the way that flavours and colours have been used to encourage people to pick up e-cigarettes?

Sheila Duffy will know that Dr Jonathan Coutts came to a meeting of the cross-party group on lung health, which I co-convene. We had a presentation on vaping, especially among young people. Given the targeting, I am really concerned about a raft of new interstitial lung diseases—I raise that because I have close links with Phyllis Murphie, who is a nurse consultant in respiratory medicine and who happens to be my sister.

We have explored future lung ill health among young people. Dr Coutts talked about the alarming rise in the number of teens who are using e-cigarettes, from 3 to 43 per cent, which has reversed a lot of the work to eliminate nicotine exposure and then addiction. Whether or not use is illicit, how concerned are you that young people are being exposed directly to nicotine, which will harm them?