Chamber and committees

I thank the minister for taking questions on what is, as she has said, a very fast-moving situation. Cairnryan is, indeed, a busy port, not just providing connectivity to Northern Ireland but also now serving as Scotland’s gateway to the European Union and Ireland. The route providers, P&O and Stena Line, carry a lot of freight, especially for supermarkets, but also provide the carriage of livestock. Will the minister therefore outline what the Government is doing to address and minimise the disruption?

Thank you, Presiding Officer.

I thank Siobhian Brown for raising that issue. I am aware of what has been launched in South Ayrshire, and I welcome it. I thank her for making that intervention so that we can highlight that.

In addition to the cycle routes at Glentress, which Christine Grahame talked about, there are other 7stanes cycle routes in Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders. The award-winning 7stanes mountain biking trails provide among the best mountain biking that is available in Scotland.

We have the southern upland way, which is Scotland’s only official coast-to-coast long-distance footpath, and which runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the North Sea—from Portpatrick on the west coast to Cove on the east coast—and we have the Galloway international dark sky park, which has been named a gold-tier park as a result of its breathtaking and rare stargazing conditions. We also have the Galloway and southern Ayrshire United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization biosphere, which is the first UNESCO biosphere in Scotland and part of a family of 700 biospheres around the world.

Those are all fantastic resources. They really help to put South Scotland on the map, and they are all hugely important to Scotland’s economy. However, more can be done.

Stranraer Water Sports Association is involved in the development of Stranraer waterfront. Loch Ryan is a beautiful and peaceful loch, and there are huge opportunities in its potential for tourism development.

I pay tribute to the work of the South of Scotland Destination Alliance, South of Scotland Enterprise, VisitScotland Dumfries and Galloway, Scottish Borders Council and the many organisations that work to promote tourism across the south, and I ask the minister to commit to do all he can to ensure that South Scotland is promoted as a world-class tourism destination as we recover from the pandemic.

Good morning. I would like to pick up on what Julie Mosgrove said about remote and rural areas. There are places in our small towns and large villages where people can access optometry services, but there are additional challenges in remote and rural areas. Could you outline some of those challenges in relation to people’s ability to access alternative pathways?

I am interested in social prescribing, which is also known as community prescribing. In the previous session of Parliament, both David Torrance and I were members of the Health and Sport Committee, which did an inquiry into social prescribing and talked about it as an investment rather than a cost. I am interested to hear whether you think that there is scope for wider use of social prescribing?

I have a quick supplementary question about digital exclusion and pop-up health checks. I am aware that the local NFU Scotland branch in Dumfries and Galloway went to an auction mart and did blood pressure, vital signs and blood glucose checks. Should we consider pursuing pop-up health checks at auction marts or in empty shops in town centres?

Yes—my question is directly for Clare Morrison. There is a system called ALISS—a local information system for Scotland—which is used to signpost people to local services. Do pharmacists use it?

I have a wee supplementary question on general practice. The Scottish Government has established the Scottish graduate entry medicine programme, which is a four-year training programme to support general practices in rural areas. Are you aware of, or do you have experience of, ScotGEM?

We know that social prescribing—singing in a choir for pulmonary rehabilitation, walking football and so on—works and makes people feel good. However, are we measuring the benefits accurately enough? Is there a risk that social prescribing will be seen as a replacement for what is perceived as more appropriate care?

The receptionist is primarily the person who takes the phone calls and triages cases. I have heard that some GPs in my area answer the phones and triage calls, identifying themselves as Dr X or whoever, and that their experience has been different and not as traumatic. Could we measure that approach? I am not suggesting that we require GPs to triage, but is it worth considering different experiences? Is there a perception that a receptionist who answers the phone does not have a clue about how to triage, when in fact they are pretty much specialists at that? Should we look at how attitudes differ, depending who answers the phone?

Are the link workers who are signposting people using the ALISS system, which is the national Government-funded local information system for Scotland? I am aware that there might be issues around keeping that system up to date. That is my first question—are the link workers either directing people through ALISS or using it themselves?

Secondly, Dumfries and Galloway basically dingied ALISS and set up its own DG Locator service, which is updated at regional rather than national level. Do you have any thoughts about how we should direct people? Is it the link worker’s job to link into the ALISS system or other systems?