Chamber and committees

The draft budget for 2025-26 now includes £5 million of investment to support independent hospices to provide pay parity with national health service agenda for change levels. The aim of that is to support hospices to retain staff who deliver essential end-of-life and palliative care services. My officials are already undertaking work to explore the mechanisms for providing that funding, while respecting the roles of integration joint boards and local commissioning arrangements.

Like Michelle Thomson, I have had the privilege of seeing the incredible work that independent hospices do—both personally and as a minister. I also recognise that Labour’s decision to increase employer national insurance has created huge pressure across the whole of the public and third sectors, including Scottish hospices. If that is not fully funded by the United Kingdom Government, it will pose risks to service delivery.

We remain committed to working with the hospice sector and IJBs to develop a new national funding framework that will support IJBs and independent hospices to agree sustainable funding, planning and commissioning arrangements to meet their local populations’ needs. We will be creating a partnership group to drive that work.

I thank Miles Briggs for his question and recognise the work that he does in supporting hospices in his region and across Scotland. As I referenced in my previous response, we have been working closely with hospices to address the situation that has arisen—the double whammy, as Miles Briggs called it. We are creating a partnership group to drive that work, and I meet hospices regularly.

The director general for health and social care met with senior officials from NHS Dumfries and Galloway, including the chief executive, to discuss national health service dental provision this Monday, 20 January. I understand that the discussion was productive, and my officials continue to meet quarterly with the health board to discuss all aspects of NHS dental service delivery.

I know that some health boards, such as NHS Tayside, to which I referred in responding to previous questions, have chosen to invest in mobile dental units. I understand that those have been successful, and I certainly encourage such innovative thinking. However, that would be a decision for the health board to make, based on its individual needs and circumstances.

The Scottish Government remains committed to expanding the national thrombectomy service and ensuring that access to that treatment is as equitable as possible. I had the pleasure of visiting NHS Lothian’s thrombectomy hub at the Edinburgh royal infirmary on 14 January and I was very impressed by the staff’s dedication and commitment to improving the care of those people who have experienced stroke. I found it an invaluable opportunity to learn at first hand about the east of Scotland thrombectomy service and to discuss service delivery, staffing levels and equity of access with the clinical and service management team.

We will continue to work with everyone who I have just mentioned in boards and regions, and with NHS national services, to expand access to thrombectomy.

I agree that we want to have the best 24-hour service that we can have, which is why we plan to invest an additional £16 million in thrombectomy services if the budget passes. We are working closely with stakeholders to understand why the current thrombectomy rates are lower than those that were predicted via modelling. We are also working with them to understand the needs in each area, because we must understand that it is not only about money, but also about the workforce.

We have invested £38 million to date in a national thrombectomy service. Most national health service boards, including NHS Fife, can now refer to thrombectomy hubs, increasing geographical access to thrombectomy. We are also funding thrombectomy specialist nurse posts in spoke hospitals with high rates of ischaemic stroke, including NHS Fife, to ensure that people who would benefit from thrombectomy are promptly identified. Work is on-going to establish how the £16 million that was announced in the Scottish budget, once it has been scrutinised by the Parliament, can be best used to maximise the number of patients who are able to benefit from thrombectomy.

Since 2017, the Scottish Government has been working with national health service boards to implement “The best start” plan to improve the quality and safety of maternity and neonatal services and to secure improved health and wellbeing for mothers and babies. “The best start” plan emphasises parents as key partners in caring for their baby and aims to keep mothers and babies together as much as possible, with services being designed around them.

Recommendations include providing accommodation; the young patients family fund; repatriating babies to their local neonatal units; and transitional care and neonatal community care. The plan also recommends that we move to three neonatal intensive care units, based on evidence that outcomes will be improved for the most pre-term and sickest babies.

Many essential items in the baby box are suitable for premature babies, and the Scottish Government has no plans to introduce a specialised baby box for premature babies.

I thank Mark Griffin for his follow-up question. I absolutely recognise the work that he did, along with the Government, to implement the young patients family fund, and I thank him for that work.

I am listening to what he is saying. There are certain items in the baby box that are suitable for premature babies, but we would be happy to meet with Mr Griffin to have a further conversation around the matter.