General Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at on 12 December 2024.
Brian Whittle
Conservative
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the publication of the access principles in November 2023 by the general practice access short-life working group, what work it has undertaken to develop a set of standards or performance indicators to evaluate the performance of GP access models. (S6O-04110)
Neil Gray
Scottish National Party
We continue to work with all relevant partners to effectively implement the general practice access principles, including through our commitment to the on-going recruitment of primary care multidisciplinary teams, as well as 800 more general practitioners.
Healthcare Improvement Scotland has already worked with more than 100 general practices to improve access arrangements, and it is ultimately for individual practices to assess whether their access arrangements meet the needs of their patients.
Brian Whittle
Conservative
Over the past year, GP services in my region have begun moving to purely digital points of access for the service. As the Cabinet secretary is aware, I am hugely supportive of the use of digital infrastructure to relieve pressures on the national health service. However, the integration of digital services must not create barriers to access.
Recently, I have become aware of access issues that have had negative impacts on patients, such as increased waiting times for GP appointments or missed triage, which have landed patients in accident and emergency departments.
Does the cabinet secretary agree that that is an important issue to monitor as we change our access models? How is the Scottish Government ensuring that integration of technology is properly resourced?
Neil Gray
Scottish National Party
Brian Whittle raises two really important issues. First, when we adopt a new innovation, particularly a patient-facing innovation, we must take people with us, and we cannot have inequity of access based on digital literacy, as Brian Whittle has set out.
Secondly, the purpose of adopting innovation and taking forward greater digitisation is to improve, speed up and provide greater capacity in our service. That is what I expect to come forward.
Conversations continue with the British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners about how we ensure equity of access and improve capacity, on the back of our budget proposals to provide greater capacity in primary care and general practice in particular.
Question Time is an opportunity for MPs and Members of the House of Lords to ask Government Ministers questions. These questions are asked in the Chamber itself and are known as Oral Questions. Members may also put down Written Questions. In the House of Commons, Question Time takes place for an hour on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays after Prayers. The different Government Departments answer questions according to a rota and the questions asked must relate to the responsibilities of the Government Department concerned. In the House of Lords up to four questions may be asked of the Government at the beginning of each day's business. They are known as 'starred questions' because they are marked with a star on the Order Paper. Questions may also be asked at the end of each day's business and these may include a short debate. They are known as 'unstarred questions' and are less frequent. Questions in both Houses must be written down in advance and put on the agenda and both Houses have methods for selecting the questions that will be asked. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P1 at the UK Parliament site.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
