Cabinet secretary’s letter outlines health and social care priorities
- Area of Work: The ALLIANCE
- Type: News Item
- Published: 9th August 2021

A letter from Humza Yousaf to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee outlines key priorities for this term of parliament.
Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Humza Yousaf MSP, has written to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee of the Scottish Parliament, outlining the government’s key priorities for the coming years. In his letter (this link will take you away from our website), the Cabinet Secretary identified a number of areas:
- Ongoing pandemic response.
- Recovery and remobilisation of the NHS.
- Mental health.
- Social care and a National Care Service.
- Drugs deaths.
- Women’s Health.
- Health Inequalities.
- Workforce Wellbeing.
Mr Yousaf confirmed the Scottish Government’s intention to bring legislation to establish a National Care Service to the Scottish Parliament within the first year of the term, by May 2022, with the intention of the service being operational by the end of the five-year term. The government’s intended actions on women’s health will be set out in the forthcoming Women’s Health Plan, and they have already introduced legislation on reimbursement of the cost for mesh removal surgery.
In addition, the letter also included commitments to provide mental health and wellbeing services in every GP practice; establish a Standing Committee on Pandemics to advise on future risks; a £10bn investment in the NHS estate over the next decade; and funding to reduce drug harms and deaths.
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