Contents
Petition
Community Hospital and Council Care Home Services (PE1710)
The next item on the agenda is consideration of petition PE1710, from Edward Archer, which calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to review provision of services for elderly and long-term sick people in community and cottage hospitals and in council care homes across Scotland.
The petition clearly relates to the inquiry into social care that we are undertaking. Do members have views on the specific points in the petition?
It is timely that the petition has come to the committee now, given that we are starting our social care inquiry. We have also heard from the Government about what aspects of social care it is looking at. How do we incorporate the petition into our social care work plan?
The petition is certainly relevant.
Yes, it is relevant to what we are doing now, although our inquiry is not just about community and cottage hospitals. We are moving from secondary to primary care and we are moving care into the community. The inquiry is about how that impacts on the whole care system. Looking at the petition in isolation would not give us the full picture and answers that we are looking for.
That is fair.
I am one of the members of the Public Petitions Committee who referred the petition to the Health and Sport Committee. We considered that this committee could look into the petition in more depth and that the petition could play a vital part in its upcoming inquiry. I am happy that we consider it as part of the inquiry.
There seems to be general agreement about that.
We will want to use the evidence that has been provided with the petition to inform our inquiry. For example, it is notable that some integration joint boards use cottage hospitals as a step-down intermediate facility for people who are leaving acute care; others do not. That is relevant to what should happen. Do we agree to take account of the petition as part of our social care inquiry and to inform the petitioner accordingly?
Members indicated agreement.
12:28 Meeting continued in private until 12:40.