Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-01559 on
‎ 24 August 2021. 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

Following clinical advice, and in agreement with stakeholders, we will not be running a sepsis awareness campaign while the COVID-19 public awareness campaign continues.

We are aiming to re-start the annual sepsis public awareness campaign in 2022. In the meantime we are in discussion with sepsis charities around how we can support them in other ways to raise awareness of sepsis.

Causes of death are categorised using the World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10 th Revision (ICD-10). A link to this classification is available here: ICD-10 Version:2019 (who.int)

For more detail on what is mean by “certain infectious and parasitic diseases” please refer to the following page of the online ICD-10 manual.

ICD-10 Version:2019 (who.int)

Causes of death are categorised using the World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10 th Revision (ICD-10). A link to this classification is available here:CD-10 Version:2019 (who.int)

Influenza and pneumonia fall under chapter X “Diseases of the respiratory system” in ICD-10 rather than chapter I “Certain infectious and parasitic diseases”. Deaths from ‘Diseases of the respiratory system’ are shown in the following table .

For a full breakdown of all causes of death categorised within ICD-10, please refer to chapter 6 of the Vital Events Reference Tables published by National Records of Scotland.

List of Data Tables | National Records of Scotland (nrscotland.gov.uk)

Table 1. Deaths from diseases of the respiratory system

We regularly engage with people who are at highest risk from COVID-19 through surveys, in-depth interviews and testing communications. Earlier this year we spoke directly to people at highest risk who have returned to the workplace as restrictions eased, to understand their challenges and what guidance and support may be needed when restrictions ease. Most recently, we launched a survey about the move to level 0 and beyond which asks how people are feeling about those changes. The results will be published late summer.

Three Disabled People’s Organisations (Inclusion Scotland, Disability Equality Scotland and Glasgow Disability Alliance) were consulted on the easing of restrictions.

Throughout the pandemic we have been engaging with both carers and carer organisations to ensure unpaid carers have the advice they need to help protect themselves and their loved ones during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Serum Institute of India (SII) manufactures both Vaxzevria and Covishield, both branded vaccines are exactly the same COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccine. All SII-made doses approved by the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and administered in the UK were those branded as the ’COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca’ which is now known commercially as ‘Vaxzeria’. The MHRA has not approved doses branded as ‘Covishield’ and none were in administered in the UK.

All AstraZeneca vaccines given in the UK are the same product and appear on the NHS Vaccination status letter as Vaxzevria. The European Medicines Agency has authorised this vaccine and we are confident travel will not be affected.

Individuals can access the batch number of the vaccine they received in Scotland via a Subject Access Request from their GP.

At present, we only collect Detect Cancer Early data for breast, colorectal and lung cancers. Information on patients diagnosed with breast, colorectal or lung cancer during the two-year period 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2019 by cancer stage is available in the Detect Cancer Early Staging publication at

https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/detect-cancer-early-staging-data/detect-cancer-early-staging-data-year-8-1-january-2018-to-31-december-2019/

Information for the two-year period 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2020 is due to be released on 19 October 2021. This information will be broken down by quarter.

Public Health Scotland are currently developing a dashboard to include provisional monthly and quarterly data for 2020 compared with both 2019 and the average of 2017-2019 for the three cancer sites (breast, colorectal and lung). It is expected that this will be released over August as part of the Covid-19 wider impacts dashboard .

The Scottish Government encourages anyone planning to visit a Scottish Island to test for coronavirus prior to travel, this includes any Ministers, staff or agency employees who are traveling to the islands. Scottish Government staff are not routinely travelling for work purposes and continue to work from home wherever possible.

Pre-departure testing for travel to the Scottish Islands is a voluntary scheme, however, everyone is encouraged to participate in order to reduce the risk of inadvertently carrying coronavirus into one of the island communities. Information on travel, including to the Scottish islands, is set out in the COVID-19 Framework for Decision Making – Scotland’s route map through and out of the crisis, which is available at www.gov.scot/coronavirus .

The Scottish Government has allocated £165,625 to NHS Shetland for 2021-22 to support the Scottish Rural Medical Collaborative develop the Rediscover the Joy in General Practice Project to ensure that remote and rural, including island, health boards can recruit and retain GPs to permanent positions. Currently there are 30 doctors recruited from other areas to work up to 18 weeks a year in practices in remote and rural areas.

The Scottish Government acts on the basis of the latest guidance issued by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which considers all available evidence for the most appropriate vaccinations policy approach in the UK. Current JCVI advice remains that the single greatest risk of mortality and severe disease from COVID-19 is increasing age and COVID-19 risk increases exponentially with age.

Those registered as clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) on the GP system are already included in group 4 of phase 1 of the JCVI priority list. Solid organ transplant recipients are deemed CEV and have been previously included on the Shielded Patient List. A hospital clinician or GP can also add a patient to the list, based on their clinical judgement, because they consider them to be at very high risk of serious illness from COVID-19.

All patients on the CEV list will also fall into the broader disease categories outlined in table 3 of the Green Book, Chapter 14a, but are in priority group 4 because of more recent treatment, more advanced condition or co-morbidities. Other patients in the same clinical risk group, but not on the CEV list at the time group 4 is called, are within priority group 6, or with their appropriate age cohort. Further information is available here: COVID-19: the green book, chapter 14a - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

On 30 June the JCVI published interim advice on adult COVID-19 booster vaccinations. The interim advice is to begin offering COVID-19 booster vaccines in September 2021, in a two-stage programme alongside the annual flu vaccination programme.

The JCVI will consider additional scientific data as it becomes available over the next few months ahead of formulating final advice. Accordingly, we shall consider the final advice issued on this matter and any adjustments JCVI may or may not recommend in light of additional scientific data it is presently considering, as this becomes available over the next few months.