Chamber and committees

My next question is about avoiding harm. The submission from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine states:

“The data show that for every 67 patients waiting 8-12 hours, one of them ... will come to avoidable harm.”

Obviously, we need to think about how that can be avoided. Data on each harm that occurs is required to be entered into a system so that it can be tracked. I think that it is the Datix system, which I know because I am a former nurse who used to enter adverse events into that system. How do we ensure that our GPs and our doctors have a wider ability to utilise the system to learn so that harm can be avoided in the future?

This evidence session is looking at planning for winter and how we can improve outcomes. I am the co-convener of a few cross-party groups on healthcare, including the one on health inequalities, and we know that we need to improve the outcomes for many people. Earlier, we heard from the minister, Maree Todd, about the women’s health plan. Do any of you have specific proposals for improving outcomes, not just for the winter but in the future?

Yes. I am interested in the best start plan and I know that we have problems with maternity services on my patch.

The bill was laid on 7 October and will be scrutinised by the Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee. However, given that nutritious diet and access to healthy food are integral to our public health agenda, this committee is interested in it, too. How will the Government work to ensure that public health priorities are integral to the bill?

I know that the bill is a framework bill and is, therefore, not as prescriptive as other types of legislation. How will the Government work with local authorities and other stakeholders to ensure that the bill has the ability to guide everyone to take the good food nation plan forward?

Research is under way on cervical cancer screening by self-sampling. I know that in NHS Dumfries and Galloway, 25 per cent of the 6,000 women who previously defaulted on screening appointments have taken that up. That means that 1,500 women are now self-screening. Can you give a short response on where we are with that research?

You have outlined a lot of what is being presented by the Scottish Government such as the child support payments and so on. I am interested in how the best start plan is working in rural and remote areas. As the convener said, she represents a rural area, as do you and I. How are we supporting the people who live in rural and remote areas?

I will be quick, because I am conscious of time. I am interested in an update on the respiratory care action plan and how that will address air quality issues. I ask because I am the co-convener of the cross-party group on lung health.

Let us go first to Annie Gunner Logan.

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate and I thank Alex Cole-Hamilton for securing it.

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues, the need to understand and respond to long Covid is increasingly pressing. We have heard from members about the reported symptoms, such as persistent fatigue, breathlessness and depression, which can be debilitating for many people, and there are many other physical and psychological side effects.

The term “long Covid” is commonly used to describe signs and symptoms that continue or develop after Covid-19. Most evidence is limited and based on small cohorts with short follow-up. I read about research that was published in The Lancet by Dr Lixue Huang and colleagues, who reported 12-month outcomes from the largest cohort of hospitalised adult survivors of Covid-19 so far. They reported that, at one year, Covid-19 survivors

“had more mobility problems, pain or discomfort, and anxiety or depression than control participants ... Fatigue or muscle weakness was the most frequently reported symptom at both 6 months and 12 months, while almost half of patients reported having at least one symptom, such as sleep difficulties, palpitations, joint pain, or chest pain, at 12 months. The study shows that for many patients, full recovery from COVID-19 will take more than 1 year, and raises important issues for health services and research.”

I agree with the contention in the motion that long Covid is a condition of concern.

I was interested to hear about the impact of paediatric long Covid and the work of Dr Binita Kane and Elisa Perego in that regard. There is emerging scientific evidence that a not-insignificant percentage of children develop long-term symptoms following exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. I was going to go into more detail about the paediatric research. It is interesting that acute kidney disease, immune dysfunction, lung perfusion defects and on-going inflammatory lung conditions have been reported up to 60 days into the post viral-infection period.

More than 1.1 million people are suffering from long Covid. This morning, I received an email from a constituent, who does not want me to give his name. He said that he is thankful that there is emerging research that will improve understanding of the illness, and he thought that it would be helpful to provide some explanation so that, in this debate, I could talk about the emerging evidence base. He said that cardiopulmonary exercise testing has demonstrated that patients with long Covid suffer from impaired systemic oxygen extraction. Basically, he said that long Covid is not a psychological illness; patients with long Covid cannot get oxygen from their blood to their cells. That results in multi-organ oxygen starvation, which explains their widespread symptoms.

A summary of acute Covid-19 effects includes blood clots and micro blood clots. There is laboratory equipment in Scotland that can test for the thrombogenic coagulation disorders that seem to be appearing in patients who are suffering from long Covid.

I support the approach that Scottish Government is putting in place. Research is still in its initial stages, but we need to take action as soon as possible.