One of the Scottish Conservatives’ newest MSPs, Dr Sandesh Gulhane, confronted the Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Humza Yousaf, on the lack of support for GP’s in helping deal with “long Covid”.
Dr Gulhane, the first Hindu to be elected to the Scottish Parliament and an experienced General Practitioner was elected to represent the Glasgow region in May. Since his election, he has been campaigning for those who have felt the effects of long Covid in Scotland. Last week in the Debating Chamber, Dr Gulhane raised concerns with Humza Yousaf regarding the “tremendous strain and pressure” GP’s have been put under in dealing with patients of long Covid. He expressed his disappointment and concerns regarding the lack of funding for new long Covid clinics to help ease the pressure on over-burdened GP’s – as already implemented in England - and offered to work with Humza Yousaf to help solve this problem.
Characteristically for the Cabinet Secretary, Humza Yousaf disregarded Dr Gulhane’s expertise and instead cited the Long Covid Support advocacy group as saying that of those who wished to be referred to a long Covid clinic in England, “less than 30% were satisfied with the experience” arguing that Scotland should not follow the English model. He added that that he disagrees that GP’s “are picking up the burden” of long Covid cases and are simply carrying a “portion of it”.
Unfortunately for those who suffer from long Covid, the Scottish Government’s Health and Social Care Cabinet Secretary missed out on key information from the Long Covid Support advocacy group’s report. The report itself states that of those who had at least one appointment “35% were satisfied with the service overall”, citing concerns over a lack of awareness by GPs of these long Covid clinics, rather than dissatisfaction in the clinics themselves. Moreover, the report shows an encouraging downward trend of those being refused referrals in England, indicating an improving service. However, despite all of this, the Long Covid Support advocacy group admits in their report that their data does come from Facebook groups and Twitter polling. Whilst not dismissing the very important findings of this report, it seems inappropriate for the Health Secretary to use this data alone to justify the dismissal of legitimate concerns by an experienced GP.
Overall, the point of Dr Gulhane’s question to the Cabinet Secretary was that GPs are currently feeling the effects of the Scottish Government’s inactivity over Long Covid clinics. For this to be dismissed by Humza Yousaf as GPs simply carrying a “portion” of the burden is either disingenuous or naive, where common sense would dictate that for the vast majority of individuals who are suffering from medical conditions (long or short term) the GP would be their first point of contact. This is yet another example of the Scottish Conservatives using their diversity of background and expertise to develop solutions to modern problems when the SNP continues to provide the Scottish people with ill-informed and inexperienced ministers.