Clare Cable of QNIS says health teams are getting there in terms of collaboration, working together rather than handing off patients.

However, she says there are issues with employees being governed by different employers.

Real collaboration will require us to look more systemically at the things that hinder a seamless journey in how patients access service, she adds.

Almost 100 Australian nurses could be working in hospitals in the north east of Scotland by the end of the year after a successful recruitment drive to tackle shortages.

Some - mainly graduate nurses - have already arrived in Aberdeen from Western Australia, and more are expected to follow next month.

NHS Grampian made the move due to an oversupply of graduates in Australia.

They are said to be drawn by the offer of permanent contracts.

Read more.

Dr David Chung says emergency departments are not technically primary care but the public often view them that way.

If we are going to improve patients' lives and the working lives of staff, we need to empower patients to do things closer to home he argues.

Theresa Fyffe from RCN Scotland tells the committee about her own experience of going to a GP to get a referral, missing the appointment letter due to being on holiday, and having to go back to the GP to get another referral.

That is not a proper use of GP time, she adds.

Convener Lewis Macdonald says the previous panel felt the definitions of primary care are rather narrow.

Clare Cable says the term 'nurses' is often used to group a large range of different practitioners together.

She agrees discussion often focus on general practice or community care hubs, when in fact primary care is delivered wherever people are.

Theresa Fyffe says the public do understand the different roles better than we realise and they need help in accessing the different support which can be provided.

Image source, bbc

Theresa Fyffe stresses the importance of resources and planning to the multidisciplinary team.

Dr David Chung says very often people presenting at A&E don't need hep from a doctor or nurse, but from an AHP from the multidisciplinary team.

"People come for us because the lights are on," adds the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Scotland, external representative.

Douglas Fraser
Scotland business & economy editor

Image source, Getty Images

The NHS turned 70 last year, well past the age of having its own bus pass.

While most others can retire at that age, the National Health Service is still working. Indeed, it's having to work flat out, and it's feeling the strain.

Some of that strain comes from more demands being placed on it. Expectations of what it can achieve are completely different to 1948.

And it has to put up with patients, many of whom do a poor job at looking after themselves. A lot of the strain comes from budgets that keep rising but struggle to keep up with numbers of patients and expectations of what can be done.

But even with lots more money, there's a shortage of people to do the jobs necessary. So-called workforce planning is one of its biggest headaches.

The committee will now hear from:

• Theresa Fyffe of Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland, external
• Dr David Chung from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Scotland, external
• Clare Cable of The Queen's Nursing Institute Scotland, external

Image source, bbc

Kim Hartley Kean, representing the Allied Health Professions Federation Scotland, says people don't know there is a self-referral system.

Ms Hartley Kean adds they tend to wait for a referral through their doctor.

Sara Conroy from the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy says there is no proper workforce planning in place for AHPs and we don't even know how many there are.

We have recruitment and retention issues, with targets being missed, but there is no proper planning she adds.

Ms Conroy calls for AHPs to be given seats round health board tables.

Alison Keir of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists says there is enough evidence about the positive impact AHPs make now that we know we need to change things and be bolder.

Ms Hartley Kean agrees with this and calls for a change in decision making at government, health board and IJB levels.

They need all the evidence on the table, she adds, but at the moment it is not getting there.

The AHP Federation Scotland says we need someone with all that evidence at the table.