I have three questions for the cabinet secretary. The chair of the British Medical Association has said that Scotland needs 2,000 general practitioners, yet you are struggling to find 800. How will you deliver the primary services that patients deserve?

I, too, thank Liz Smith for securing the time for this evening’s debate.

Earlier this year, I was involved in the fight to save Bucksburn swimming pool after Sport Aberdeen’s devastating decision to close it. That decision, which was a result of funding cuts by Aberdeen City Council, was taken without consultation and without equality impact assessments. At the time, Bucksburn was the only swimming pool in the city with a shallow-stair entry for people with disabilities. Only now, months after the axe came down, are we likely to see a full formal consultation on the closure, because of legal challenges prepared by the Govan Law Centre and the Grampian Community Law Centre. The surrounding community rallied around that beloved facility, and I pay tribute to those involved in the campaign to save the pool, such as Kirsty Fraser and Genevieve Wheeler-Melvin, and their incredible efforts to keep the pool open, as well as to Dr Mark Brown, president of Bucksburn Amateur Swimming Club.

Too many people in decision-making positions forget or are oblivious to the benefits of public swimming pools. The reality is that councils look at facilities such as Bucksburn through the lens of balance sheets and financial liabilities. However, a mental health nurse I met at a save Bucksburn swimming pool demo told me that she swears by swimming as a help to her patients; another woman told me that she has a rare kidney disease and that the water makes swimming a weight-bearing exercise for her; and there was a man with two replacement knees who found walking difficult and therefore needed the pool to exercise and build up his strength. The pool also provided the opportunity for children to learn essential life skills to keep them safe in water. Indeed, hundreds of children were learning to swim at Bucksburn pool before it closed.

There is also a wider story to tell about the state and provision of council-funded leisure facilities elsewhere in my region—and I would note that no Labour or Scottish National Party members from the region are here this evening. In Dundee, a storied saga of ineptitude and dither has led to the city’s flagship Olympia swimming pool closing for two years, only nine years after opening. Meanwhile, Dundee City Council is spending more than £100 million replacing two schools—Braeview academy and Craigie high school—that have swimming pool facilities, but there are no plans for a swimming pool at the new East End community campus.

In March 2023, the UK Government announced a £63 million fund for struggling swimming pools. The Scottish Government received Barnett consequentials as a result of that, yet we are still in the dark about how that money has been allocated. I hope that Maggie Chapman, who has spoken so passionately about Bucksburn swimming pool, can influence her SNP colleagues to spend the money that they have received from the UK Government to save it.

The social, emotional and health-related value of our swimming pools cannot be ignored, and I urge the Scottish Government to step up to save them.

So you do not expect the number to increase, and you hope that it will decrease. I will move on to my second question, because we have been asked by the convener to be quick.

You describe the issues that rural practices face because of bad weather, and the Braemar practice is a good example of that. You talked about high winds, flooding and heavy snow in the winter. When it comes to moving a GP practice to 2C status and the cost model of sourcing and supplying the practice with locums, that can work in-hours, but it cannot work out of hours, so you have rural practices that are cut off and isolated during the winter months. What are the cost implications of that, and what are the considerations of leaving those remote areas without any form of GP support?

I have three questions, the first of which is for Caroline Lamb. You said that you always expect a high turnover of staff. As a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, I know that, with regard to the percentage of voluntary staff turnover, there are what are called red-zone levels, and it looks as if the NHS is in the red zone, with staff turnover being too high.

Last month, it was reported that doctors in NHS Grampian had used whistleblowing procedures to raise very serious concerns about conditions and staffing levels, with one doctor saying that, tragically, that

“There have been avoidable deaths”

as a result of the situation. What action is the Scottish Government taking with NHS Grampian to address staff shortages urgently, especially as winter approaches?

You have not really answered my question about your confidence levels and where on the scale you might be in that respect. Are you confident or are you concerned?

Thank you. The committee will take that away.

I have three questions, the first of which is for Pamela Milliken. Aberdeenshire health and social care partnership covers remote and rural areas where the future of primary care is in jeopardy. Indeed, as we know, Braemar has faced such huge difficulties in recruiting a GP that, in December, the practice will have to hand back its contract and move to a 2C arrangement. There are already six general practices under such an arrangement in your area and Braemar will make it seven. Given that increase from six to seven, do you expect the number to increase again in the coming year?

So it is an increase from five to six, then.

Sorry, but my question is whether that number will increase.

That sounded like a politician’s way of saying that it will not reopen. Thank you.