The Scottish Parliament’s Health & Sport Committee, chaired by Labour MSP Lewis Macdonald, has announced three new inquiries it will undertake before the 2021 election.

This spring, the Committee will consider what primary care will look like for the next generation, focusing particularly on recruitment and retention.

The needs of people using health services and how they would want them met will be among the key questions explored.

The new GP contract and hub service delivery models will also be evaluated. ‘Later in 2019’ the Committee will undertake an inquiry into the capacity of the social care sector, partly in response to the closure of residential care facilities and ‘general funding issues within both independent and council run facilities’.

Although lines of questioning have not been finalised, they are likely to include consideration of the sustainability of both at home and residential care, and future funding models.

The committee previously held a one-off evidence session on care home sustainability after the withdrawal of Bield Housing Association from the residential care sector.

Consideration of the purchasing, prescribing, dispensing and consumption of medicines is ‘likely to be in 2020’.

Minimising costs of procurement for the NHS will be focused on – an increasingly important area as Scotland’s population ages and more people are living longer with complex needs.

The part to be played by pharmacy as an integral component of primary care will also be considered, alongside the effectiveness of efforts to reduce medicines wastage.