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I have been asked to continually mention the importance of continuity. We know that the best outcome for patients occurs when they get continuity with a healthcare professional and that seeing the same healthcare professional will do more for the health of patients in remote and rural Scotland than anything else.
Going back to the question of what the considerations are, I articulated, as best I could, that we did a mock-up of the workforce establishment process in preparation for the staffing legislation, which gave us clear indications of what our remote and rural physiotherapists are doing with their time.
However, from my conversations with those in the fire service, it is clear that that is not the case, and the continued claim that the withdrawal is temporary is, at best, a misunderstanding and, at worst, disingenuous.
The mental health aspect of long Covid—and of catching Covid in the first place—is even more of an issue. I have said this for the best part of a year and a half or two years: we could be heading towards a mental health pandemic, but that is not being addressed.
We will continue to discuss with Police Scotland how to create the best possible enforcement situation. This is an odd situation whereby we are having this helpful but nonetheless extraordinary evidence session.
We included the Scottish child payment increase to £25 a week and the removal of best start foods income thresholds. We have also assumed that benefit cap mitigation starts fairly swiftly and we assume that there is £4 million of spending on benefit cap mitigation in this financial year, rising to £11 million in the next financial year.
If we ask disabled people’s organisations to come to an event at 9 o’clock in the morning, with the best will in the world, for some people that means rising at 5 am to get organised to be there, because they may need support.