Chamber and committees

Thanks, Gillian, but I do not actually have a supplementary question—I was just correcting a spelling mistake in the chat box. [Laughter.]

A recent Royal Society for the Protection of Birds report put the UK at the bottom of the G7 league table for how much biodiversity it has left, although it noted that Scotland had the highest level of biodiversity intactness of all UK nations. Does the minister agree that the Scottish Government can be rightly proud of its comprehensive efforts since 2007 to protect Scotland’s wildlife?

I welcome the opportunity to speak in the national eye health debate, and I congratulate my friend and colleague Stuart McMillan on securing it.

Eyesight is one of our most important senses—80 per cent of what we perceive comes through our sense of sight.

This week is national eye health week, which has been established to communicate the importance of good eye health. It rightly encourages people from every walk of life to take better care of their eyes and have regular sight tests.

There are five key areas to protecting and promoting good eye health, which Stuart McMillan has covered in more detail than I perhaps will in the time available to me.

It is worth reiterating that a healthy diet is really important. Studies show that what we eat can affect our vision. Antioxidants can help to prevent retinal damage, and one antioxidant that is hugely beneficial is lutein. Exercise is also important. Lack of exercise contributes significantly to several eye conditions, particularly among people aged 60 and over. Reduced alcohol intake is an interesting area—excessive alcohol consumption can lead to serious health conditions that can have a detrimental effect on eye health. Stopping smoking is another area. After ageing, smoking is the biggest risk factor in the development of macular degeneration.

My younger sister, Buffy, is an ophthalmic nurse specialist who specialises in glaucoma care. She keeps me and her patients right with her expert knowledge. It will be interesting to hear what she thinks of the debate, because I know that she is watching.

Optometrists play a crucial role in our community. However, as with all health professionals, they have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic. Over the course of the pandemic, I engaged with Optometry Scotland on the negative impact that the pandemic has had on optometry, with eight months of no face-to-face appointments.

Sight Scotland has carried out research since lockdown that involved speaking to people in Scotland with visual impairment and those close to them. I thank Sight Scotland for its briefing ahead of the debate. Its report highlighted that 70 per cent of respondents said that their sight loss made lockdown a worse experience; 50 per cent said that they would not be confident about offering support to someone with visual impairment; and a large number of people said that they were unable to attend their optometrist and therefore attended hospital instead.

I recognise the impact that Covid has had on optometry services and encourage the Scottish Government to ensure that they are supported in the upcoming budget. We have heard that optometrists are potentially looking for a 3 per cent fee increase—that is the request from Optometry Scotland.

In 2016-17 alone, community eye care in Scotland saved the national health service £71 million through carrying out 1.8 million primary eye examinations. Importantly, in 2016-17 community optometry services preventing more than 370,000 people from having to attend hospital for eye issues.

In 2019, I saw for myself the very positive impact that community optometry can have when I visited Stranraer Specsavers, where I met the chair of Optometry Scotland, David Quigley, prescribing optometrist, Elaine Hawthorne, and communications officer, Ross Stevens. During the visit, I heard that, as well as identifying any specific issues with sight, an eye check—which is free in Scotland—can help to identify conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis and even signs of dementia. I also heard about the benefits of having a 3D eye scan, which can give the optometrist a better picture of the eye and enable them to pick up any developing issues early, preventing late diagnosis and the need for secondary or acute care.

An issue that was highlighted was that optometrists are not recognised as allied health professionals. I was told that such recognition would help optometrists to be better at working in partnership with the national health service. I therefore ask the minister to consider whether optometry personnel could be added to the list of allied health professionals.

I realise that my time is up. I again welcome the debate. I thank Optometry Scotland for all that it does and encourage everyone to have their sight checked regularly.

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to improve journey times on the Dumfries to Glasgow and Stranraer to Ayr railway services, to help reduce emissions from the use of other modes of transport. (S6O-00178)

There are only four trains per day on the single-track Stranraer line, and it takes two hours and 20 minutes to get to Glasgow, compared to just two hours by car. On the Dumfries line, it takes one hour and 59 minutes to get to Glasgow by train but only an hour and a half by car. Given the climate emergency and the need to reduce the number of car journeys, is there potential for increasing the frequency of the trains on those lines? Can the minister outline when the lines, which are currently diesel, will be decarbonised, which will improve journey times?

Citizens Advice Scotland research shows that, across Scotland, 1.4 million people have run out of money before pay day in the past year, and CAS warns that the end of furlough and the cut to universal credit risk further financial insecurity. What assessment has the Deputy First Minister made of the impact that that will have on Scotland’s recovery from Covid-19?

I will try and be quick. In the last session of Parliament, we did a report on social prescribing. We can keep people out of hospital in the first place by engaging them in practices that support health, wellbeing and physical activity, thereby preventing complications of type 2 diabetes, because 10 per cent of the NHS budget is spent on mitigating those complications. I am interested in what the witnesses think and I suppose that the convener can choose someone to answer the question.

I am thinking about low-hanging fruit. Healthcare providers are starting to get more education about adverse childhood experiences. Police officers in South Ayrshire are now going through training to recognise ACEs, which is really important. When I started my vaccination programme training, there was nothing in the e-learning modules about tackling stigma related to alcohol and drugs for healthcare professionals who work outside alcohol and drug services. If we are thinking about low-hanging fruit and on-the-ground delivery of education, do you think that we need to consider ensuring that healthcare professionals know about adverse childhood experiences as well as things such as the stigma that is related to alcohol and drugs?

Thanks, convener, and good morning to our panel of experts.

The Scottish Government has published its public health priorities, with a number of items that need to be addressed. Among the priorities are:

“A Scotland where we flourish in our early years ... A Scotland where we have good mental wellbeing ... A Scotland where we reduce the use of and harm from alcohol, tobacco and other drugs”.

Six priorities are listed. This is the first time that Scotland has had a simple, overarching public health strategy, and it is the first time that the national public health priorities have been aimed at wider determinants of health.

I am now co-convener of the cross-party groups on health inequalities, on improving Scotland’s health and on diabetes. I am trying to bring them all together so that we can have everybody round the table having the same conversation, instead of having different conversations in silos.

I am interested to hear whether the expert panellists agree with the Scottish Government’s public health priorities. Do you think that something needs to be added?

Over the past few weeks since the recovery plan was published, we have heard that there will be a need to address backlogs in the diagnosis of cancer—including breast and bowel cancer diagnostic processes and cervical smear tests—ophthalmic surgery and cataract treatments and hip and knee replacements. How will we address that demand? During the pandemic, elective work basically stopped. Even now, the intensive care units are filled with Covid patients rather than, for example, elective bowel surgery patients. Where do you think that the backlog of surgery requirements and diagnostic testing needs to be tackled?