I thank colleagues across the chamber for signing my motion marking world AIDS day, which falls on Friday 1 December. I look forward to hearing speeches from other members throughout the debate.

HIV remains a condition that has a profound impact on the health and wellbeing of people globally. However, with early diagnosis and effective therapy, HIV is, in many nations, no longer the terminal illness that it was in the 1980s. It is now established that, with effective treatment, the virus cannot be transmitted to others.

Of course, adverse impacts on physical and mental health remain, together with the requirement for lifelong healthcare and treatment. Living with HIV can worsen existing inequalities, and people might experience additional HIV-related stigma and discrimination. Therefore, there is a real opportunity and a real need to prevent HIV from being passed on in the first place.

By the end of 2021, 6,415 people were known to be living with HIV in Scotland following a diagnosis. That compares with 5,617 people in 2019. HIV can and does affect anyone—people of any age, sexuality, ethnicity or gender. However, we know that rates of access to HIV specialist treatment and care are relatively high in Scotland. Based on 2019 data, 90 per cent of people who had been diagnosed were attending specialist HIV services, 98 per cent of those attending were receiving antiretroviral therapy and 95 per cent of people treated had achieved an undetectable HIV blood level.

Over the past decade, the annual number of people in Scotland diagnosed with HIV for the first time has declined. The number reduced by 37 per cent between 2010 and 2019, and by a further 54 per cent in 2021. Thanks to scientific and pharmacological developments and the expertise of our leading sexual and reproductive health services, if they are on the right treatment, a person with HIV in Scotland can live a long, happy and healthy life.

However, we can go further. The goal of eliminating HIV transmission is now in sight. On world AIDS day three years ago, the then public health minister, Joe FitzPatrick, set the goal of ending HIV transmission in Scotland by 2030. To make good on that commitment, excellent work has been undertaken to examine what is working well in driving down the number of new transmissions and how those successes can be further capitalised on, and people are investigating what more we can do.

Back in 2020, the Scottish Government commissioned the Scottish health protection network to develop a proposal on how elimination could be achieved. That led to the establishment of the HIV transmission elimination oversight group, which published its report on world AIDS day last year with a set of recommendations to inform the Scottish Government on how the elimination target can be met. That report set out a total of 22 proposed actions within five key pillars of intervention. Those pillars are testing; education, including awareness raising and stigma reduction; combination therapy; entry into and retention in specialist HIV care; and contact tracing.

One of the specific asks is for the Scottish Government to commit to piloting opt-out HIV blood-borne virus—BBV—testing in accident and emergency departments in areas of the highest HIV prevalence. A similar opt-out testing scheme was launched in England and proved to be successful in identifying cases of HIV and other blood-borne viruses. There are estimated to be 500 people living with undiagnosed HIV in Scotland, and it is vital that we invest in ways to find all of them if we are to meet the 2030 goals.

I wrote to the Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health about that earlier this year. In her response, she advised that there would be an

“element of prioritisation for the recommendations, and this will be based on a number of factors, such as available capacity within services, likely relative impact, and timescales for delivery.”

Identifying undiagnosed and unknown HIV and blood-borne viruses should be a key public health priority. I ask the minister to consider the recommendation for opt-out testing as a matter of urgency. That action could save lives. I also look forward to hearing more from the minister in her closing speech about the actions that the Scottish Government will take to drive forward the recommendations to ensure that the 2030 goal becomes a reality.

World AIDS day affords us the opportunity to come together to stand in solidarity with all people who live with HIV. It allows us to remember those who have lost their lives to HIV and AIDS-related illnesses over the decades, as well as to celebrate activists and charities who have refused to let HIV stigma stand in the way of progress. As charities such as the Terence Higgins Trust say, nowadays, stigma is more harmful than HIV itself.

The stigma around HIV is not what it once was, but much more needs to be done to educate people about the virus, as a lack of knowledge about the medical progress over the years still fuels stigma. Research by the Terence Higgins Trust and the Scottish Government has laid bare attitudes to HIV in Scotland today. According to the study, only 35 per cent of people would be happy to kiss someone with HIV, 25 per cent would feel worried about receiving medical treatment from a doctor or nurse who has HIV and nearly half of the people in Scotland would feel ashamed to tell others if they were diagnosed with HIV.

Last month, I was pleased to lodge another motion in the Parliament, as well as to ask a question to the First Minister regarding the launch of the new national HIV anti-stigma campaign, led by the Terence Higgins Trust and funded by the Scottish Government. Aired on television in Scotland, the new advert provides an overdue update on the huge medical progress in the fight against HIV. It is the first TV advert on HIV since the UK Government’s infamous “Don’t die of ignorance” campaign, which featured falling tombstones, 40 years ago. I am sure that any of us who is old enough to remember that campaign does so.

Alongside providing up-to-date information about HIV, the new 60-second TV advert aims to tackle the stigma that still surrounds the virus, which usually results from misconceptions about how HIV has changed since the 1980s and 1990s. We still have a way to go in tackling stigma, but public information campaigns such as that one can make a difference and that, in turn, will save lives.

I remind members of the photo call to mark world AIDS day, which my colleague Karen Adam is sponsoring, after First Minister’s questions on Thursday. I encourage all members to join and show their support. Across the parties, we all share the same commitment to do what we can to eradicate new HIV transmissions by 2030. It is a visionary and ambitious target, and one that we can and must achieve.

Good morning and welcome to the 35th meeting in 2023 of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee. I have received no apologies for this meeting.

The first item on our agenda is to decide whether to take items 4, 5 and 6 in private. Do members agree to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

The second item on our agenda is the first oral evidence session of the committee’s inquiry into healthcare in remote and rural areas. We will hear from representatives of the Scottish Government and NHS Education for Scotland. I welcome Stephen Lea-Ross, deputy director of health, workforce planning and development, and Siobhan Mackay, interim deputy director of primary care capability, both at the Scottish Government. Dr Pam Nicoll is associate director of medicine and leads on the national centre for remote and rural health and care at NHS Education for Scotland. We are expecting Professor Emma Watson, the executive medical director of NHS Education for Scotland, to join us. Dr Nicoll is joining us remotely. Thank you and welcome.

We will move straight to questions.

I am keen to hear how the work of the Scottish Rural Medicine Collaborative informed the plan for the new centre and what additional areas the centre will cover.

I remind those in the room that you do not need to operate your microphones; broadcasting will do that.

It would be helpful to see some more detail around that work plan because that certainly was not what I was getting from the reading that I did in preparation for the committee meeting.

I thank Professor Glasier and the officials who have joined her today for their evidence.

At next week’s meeting, we will continue our inquiry into healthcare in remote and rural areas and hear from academics with expertise in rural healthcare.

That concludes the public part of our meeting.

We will move on to the next theme, which I believe Mr Sweeney has questions on.

That would be very helpful for the committee.

I have a final question, which is specifically for Pam Nicoll. We have heard a lot this morning about the workforce, staff retention and so on, but I have not heard where the patient’s voice is in respect of development of the new national centre, or how patients’ voices will be heard in following iterations of the centre and their development.

I am sorry—I am maybe not being clear enough in what I am asking. Has there been direct consultation of patient groups and patient representatives in remote and rural settings during development of the work plan for the centre and its priorities? I hear what you are saying about how that will happen going forward, but has there been engagement so far?

Our third agenda item is an evidence session with the independent women’s health champion to receive an update on her work since being appointed, and an update on the implementation of the Scottish Government’s women’s health plan.

I welcome to the meeting Professor Anna Glasier, women’s health champion, and Greig Chalmers and Felicity Sung, who are both from the Scottish Government.

We will move straight to questions, and the first ones are from Sandesh Gulhane.