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PE1845: Agency to advocate for the healthcare needs of rural Scotland

Petition summary

Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to create an agency to ensure that health boards offer ‘fair’ and ‘reasonable’ management of rural and remote healthcare issues.

Petitioner: Gordon Baird on behalf of Galloway Community Hospital Action Group

Status: Under consideration

Date published: 23 November 2020

Click here for the full petition

SPICe Briefing

Committee Meetings

13 January 2021: The Committee agreed to write to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport. The Committee also agreed to write to the Scottish Rural Health Partnership.

Official Report of Meeting 13 January 2021

10 March 2021: The Committee agreed to continue this petition and include it in its legacy paper for its successor Committee, along with a suggestion to seek views from the Remote and Rural General Practice Short Life Working Group, chaired by Sir Lewis Ritchie, and rural NHS boards, and to write to the Scottish Government to request an update on the National Centre for Rural Health.

Official Report of Meeting 10 March 2021

8 September: The Committee agreed to write to the Scottish Government. It also agreed to write to the Remote and Rural General Practice Short Life Working Group and to rural health boards.

Official Report of Meeting 8 September 2021

4 May 2022: The Committee agreed to invite the Petitioner to provide evidence at a future meeting.

Official Report of Meeting 4 May 2022

8 June 2022: The Committee took evidence from petitioner Gordon Baird and agreed to consider the evidence heard at a future meeting.

Official Report of Meeting 8 June 2022

15 June 2022:The Committee agreed to refer the petition to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, in the context of that committee’s wider consideration of health inequalities.

Official Report of Meeting 15 June 2022