Official Report 172KB pdf
Good morning and welcome to the fifth meeting in session 3 of the Health and Sport Committee. I ask members and people in the public gallery to switch off their mobile phones—I had forgotten to do so myself. I have received apologies from Michael Matheson, but we are joined by Joe FitzPatrick, the Scottish National Party substitute member. I welcome Professor Sutton, who is our budget adviser and who is here for later proceedings—I say that in case anybody wonders why he is here.
He is just standing out there, by the door.
He thinks that five minutes lasts seven minutes, but we will teach him otherwise. In any event, I welcome the two new members who are present. I am pleased that Helen Eadie is now here as a member in her own right, rather than as a substitute for Karen Gillon or Malcolm Chisholm—it is good to see her getting her appropriate role. As this is Rhoda Grant's first committee meeting, I ask her to declare any relevant interests.
I am a Unison member, which may have relevance to the committee, as Unison is a major representative of health care workers. I have no other interests to declare.
I welcome Dr Richard Simpson and ask him to declare any interests that are relevant to the committee's remit. This may take some time.
Until recently, I was employed as a consultant psychiatrist by Lothian NHS Board. I have now retired from that post, but I will continue to hold a consultancy with the board for a temporary period, which will probably be about six months, for specific work on developing a single shared assessment system for drugs and alcohol users. I declare membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners, fellowship of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, membership of Amicus, which is now part of Unite, membership of the British Medical Association, membership of the Scottish Association for Mental Health and membership of the Scottish Drugs Forum. I am also a member of Strathcarron hospice and a past chair of its management committee. Those are all the interests that are particularly relevant to the committee, although I should say that as well as having been a psychiatrist I was, as Dr McKee was, a general practitioner for many years.
You and Dr McKee will be valuable committee members, given your expertise.