Hansard

The Convener (Johann Lamont) Lab

I welcome everyone to the 22nd meeting of the Public Petitions Committee in 2019. The first and only item on our agenda is consideration of continued petitio...

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport (Jeane Freeman) SNP

Thank you, convener, and good morning to you and committee members. As you know, I wrote to the committee in September. The opening statement that I am about...

The Convener Lab

Thank you for your statement. We received a further submission with some questions from the petitioner. I think that you have a copy of it. If we do not mana...

Jeane Freeman SNP

Given that the chief medical officer was involved in that, I am happy to ask her to respond.

Dr Catherine Calderwood (Scottish Government)

I met Professor Chris Ponting, who has a long interest in research on ME, and officials from the chief scientist office and Action for ME. We had a very help...

Gail Ross (Caithness, Sutherland and Ross) (SNP) SNP

Cabinet secretary, you mentioned in your submission and your opening statement that the Scottish Government continues to liaise with NES to explore opportuni...

Jeane Freeman SNP

NES has a practice-based small group learning membership that includes general practitioners. That group has prioritised ME as a module for NES to produce in...

Gail Ross SNP

On continuing professional development of our medical staff, I was concerned that NHS Forth Valley said in its response that it sees the diagnosis of ME as a...

Jeane Freeman SNP

That is not uncommon, to an extent, with neurological conditions. Yesterday, I had a discussion with some of our clinical advisers and colleagues on attentio...

Gail Ross SNP

But if the health board as a whole is not even recognising a diagnosis of ME, we are not talking about misdiagnosis; the board is simply refusing to diagnose...

Jeane Freeman SNP

I understand what you are saying. In publishing the framework for action, we want to raise the issue directly with all those who have been involved through o...

Maurice Corry (West Scotland) (Con) Con

I note the comments that you made in your opening statement, cabinet secretary. The committee understands that you have spoken to many stakeholders from the ...

Jeane Freeman SNP

Part of the reason for commissioning the pieces of work by the Scottish Health Council and the Scottish public health network that I referred to towards the ...

Maurice Corry Con

That will help to address NHS Forth Valley’s comments. Thank you—I am happy with that.

Brian Whittle (South Scotland) (Con) Con

In January, the chief medical officer told the committee that the Scottish Government was creating a working group to look at the provision of services. You ...

Jeane Freeman SNP

Part of what the short-life working group will have to work with are the two pieces of work that I have commissioned, which will provide it with evidence on ...

Dr Calderwood

There will be some frustration about the delay, but we are starting from a baseline of very little data. We want to know about the number of people who have ...

Brian Whittle Con

Cabinet secretary, you mentioned in your opening statement the two pieces of work that the Scottish Government has commissioned. Forgive me if I missed this,...

Jeane Freeman SNP

You are referring to the updated needs assessment by the Scottish public health network and the Scottish Health Council’s work on what good care and support ...

Brian Whittle Con

What has the Scottish Government done to ensure that the ME community is kept up to date with the timescale and the developments that are in progress?

Jeane Freeman SNP

A number of meetings have taken place between my officials and stakeholders in the ME community, including the petitioner. We will continue that process of k...

The Convener Lab

I will reflect on some of the comments that have been made to us in submissions. In one anonymous submission, a person said that they did not feel there was ...

Jeane Freeman SNP

Thank you for that, convener. Your questions are important for those who are suffering from ME, and it is important for our wider clinical community to hear ...

The Convener Lab

In its submission, NHS Lothian resists the critique of the PACE trial that has been provided by the ME community. The argument is that something should be bu...

Dr Calderwood

Yes, I agree that we will need to look at that carefully. We could write to the committee. I can ask Chris Ponting and others to help me to look at the PACE ...

The Convener Lab

Thank you very much for responding to our questions. We will have to reflect on what we have heard. If there are points on which you want to respond further,...

Jeane Freeman SNP

Before you do that, convener, I would like to say that we will answer all the questions that the petitioner submitted on 17 December, and we will copy you in...

The Convener Lab

Thank you. I appreciate that. 09:20 Meeting suspended. 09:23 On resuming—