Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has committed £6.2 million to genomics for the financial year 2022-23. This is in addition to the funding allocated to the 4 genetic laboratories in Scotland by NHS Boards through NHS National Services Division (NSD) commissioning arrangements.

The Scottish Government fully recognises the role of genomics in improving patient outcomes. We have provided funding to NSD to establish a Transformation Team led by a Lead Clinical Scientist alongside resource that specialises in transformative programme management and Data Analytics. The Team will be operational from June 2022.

This team will be responsible for delivering the rapid adoption of a number of genetic tests for cancer across the genetic laboratories as well as developing an action plan for the implementation of the recommendations from the Genetic Laboratory Major Service Review.

The transformation team will work within NSD and support the Scottish Government to develop our long term plans for genomics medicine in Scotland.

The Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme Lead, who conducts the annual review process, meets with NHS boards on behalf of Scottish Government. This engagement allows us to understand the provision of stroke services, including training and staff capacity across NHS boards, and where challenges or opportunities for sharing good practice exist.

Scottish Government representatives also sit on the National Advisory Committee for Stroke (NACS), where specialists from NHS boards across Scotland provide expert advice and recommendations relating to Scottish Government policy for the provision of stroke care. NACS has recently developed the Progressive Stroke Pathway ( Strokes: progressive stroke pathway - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ), which was published on 22 March 2022. This document sets out an ambitious vision of what a progressive stroke service in Scotland should look like.

The rehabilitation sub-group of NACS, which is made up of specialists across a range of disciplines from various NHS boards in Scotland, played an important role in helping to shape the Progressive Stroke Pathway recommendations relating to stroke rehabilitation services. On the back of this input, the Progressive Stroke Pathway makes a number of recommendations relating to the provision of stroke care, and the contributions of appropriate training and staff capacity in helping deliver this.

We will continue to engage regularly with these specialists from across Scottish NHS boards as we move into the implementation phase, considering the recommendations made in the Progressive Stroke Pathway.

The Scottish Government allocated £5 million in the financial year 2020-21 to support the wellbeing of people working in health, social care and social work. This money was allocated to the following services;

• Coaching for Wellbeing
• Digital Resources
• Formal Psychological Interventions
• Workforce Specialist Service

The Minister for Equalities and Older People has invited Hourglass to meet with her to discuss funding for its elder abuse helpline. Hourglass have yet to suggest a date to meet.

Within NHS GG&C, acute stroke thrombolysis is already available on a 24/7 basis. This is currently based at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH), with patients transferred for thrombolysis where appropriate. Work is ongoing to establish a telemedicine thrombolysis model to provide 24/7 thrombolysis at other sites.

The Scottish Government recognises that thrombectomy procedures can significantly improve outcomes and quality of life for some people who have suffered an ischaemic stroke by avoiding or reducing the level of disability. We are committed to introducing a high quality and clinically safe thrombectomy service in Scotland and are making important progress against this commitment. In NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, the thrombectomy service is currently in the test of change phase, and has provided thrombectomies to 13 patients since October 2021.

The numbers of Community First Responders (CFRs) that were allocated to and attended incidents in the last financial year are presented in the table below. For safety reasons as a result of Covid, Community First Responders were stood down for a six month period in 2020. The required training for remobilisation of all volunteers and CFR schemes extended into 2021.

Please note that if two Community First Responders were allocated to the same incident, then they will both be counted.

Guidance on accessing COVID-19 treatment is provided on NHS Inform . Notably, there are different treatment options available for different groups of individuals who are thought to be at higher risk from COVID-19. The online guidance states that individuals with health conditions which mean they may be eligible for COVID-19 treatments should contact the health board where they live in the first instance. This is because an individual’s home health board will have access to more information about the individual to be able to support any requirements to confirm their eligibility. Where the individual is temporarily resident in another part of Scotland, or another part of the UK, they should contact their home health board who will support them in accessing their closest treatment service.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-08411 on 17 May 2022. 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 information requested is not collected or held centrally by the Scottish Government and would require to be obtained from Health Boards.

The Scottish Ambulance Service does not produce statistics based on free-text searches, as this data would require a significant amount of resource for analysis and clinical input.