Chamber and committees

The identification, assessment and management of people with long-term effects of COVID-19 in Scotland is guided by the recommendations of an evidence-based UK-wide clinical guideline developed by the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN), the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the Royal College of GPs (RCGP).

We have worked with specialist clinicians in different disciplines to develop an 'Implementation Support Note' for healthcare professionals, which is intended to accompany and support delivery of the clinical guideline in Scotland. This has been shared with all NHS Boards and is accessible on the SIGN website .

We’ve also supported the development of the SIGN Decision Support platform, which provides healthcare professionals with an integrated point of access to the information from both the clinical guideline and the Implementation Support Note, on a web based platform and mobile app. In addition, NHS Education for Scotland’s learning platform ‘Turas’ contains video and webinar content on long COVID.

GPs and Allied Health Professions may also access information and training resources through relevant professional bodies. For example, the Royal College of GPs has an e-learning course on long COVID, which aims to teach people how to describe the various presentations of long COVID, understand the current guidance and the impact that long COVID has on patients. Additionally, the Royal College of Occupational Therapists has also produced resources, which can be accessed at: Post-COVID Syndrome (Long Covid) - RCOT .

The New Scots Refugee Integration Delivery Project includes a workstream on research and evaluation. This entails working with New Scots partners and external evaluators to carry out project monitoring, research work and an evaluation of the New Scots Strategy 2018-2022. This evaluation report is due to be published in August 2023.

Given the reserved nature of telecoms legislation, it is the responsibility of the UK Government to ensure that people across Scotland can access reliable broadband. Despite this, the Scottish Government has had to step in and our R100 programme is currently delivering gigabit-capable, full fibre connections across Scotland. We want to push coverage as far as possible via the three R100 contracts and, so far, Openreach have connected over 6,700 additional premises, over and above those contracted at no extra cost to the Scottish Government.

The UK Government’s Project Gigabit should be a vehicle to connect any remaining premises but, to this point, UK Ministers have yet to commit a sufficient level of funding to deliver coverage across all parts of Scotland. We continue to urge them to do so.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-20183 on‎ 14 August 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

We need to understand if there are any underlying causes that explain the increase in neonatal mortality across Scotland in 2021-22 and that is why we have commissioned Health Improvement Scotland (HIS) to undertake a review of the deaths. The review will consider the systems, processes and governance for the delivery of neonatal care which are relevant to the review scope. The HIS report will be published later this year.

In addition, the Scottish Government is funding a National Hub to review all child and neonatal deaths which was launched on 1 October 2021. The National Hub is jointly operated by Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Care Inspectorate, following the successful piloting of the approach in NHS Lothian, NHS Tayside and NHS Lanarkshire.

The Hub’s focus is to use evidence to inform practice to reduce the number of child and young people’s deaths in Scotland and to report annually on its findings. The aim of the National Hub is to ensure that a quality review is undertaken following the death of every child in Scotland and identify themes and trends via the use of standardised forms and processes for Health Boards and local authorities.

We are planning on the basis that the full model should be implemented by mid 2025.To aid with implementation we will work with regional chief executives and strategic planning leads to undertake modelling and capacity work to help develop local implementation plans. It is important that the whole multidisciplinary team are involved in developing local plans, including obstetric and maternity staff.

For parents of babies currently in neonatal care, there will be no immediate change. This model of care is based on how neonatal care has been delivered in Scotland for many years. For example, babies born in the Borders needing specialist intensive care have for many years received intensive care in Edinburgh or Glasgow, before being transferred back to hospitals closer to home as their condition improves.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-20292 on 14 August 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/questions-and-answers .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-20183 on‎ 14 August 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government last met the Society of Chief Officers of Environmental Health in Scotland on 28 July 2023 and the next meeting is scheduled for the 25 August 2023.

We are committed to delivering a National Care Service (NCS) to improve quality, fairness and consistency of provision that meets individuals’ needs. The NCS will have equality, dignity and human rights at its heart and will empower people across Scotland to make the choices that are right for them.

In the current system an individual can defer payment of part of their contribution to care home fees to avoid the need to sell their homes up front to meet these costs, this is a legal agreement between the individual and the council. Within the current system there are also provisions in place in the form of set capital levels to ensure an individual is not be charged more than the assessed level of resource they have.