Chamber and committees

It is vital for the current COVID-19 vaccination programme to reach everyone and that no one is left behind, both for individual health and our collective community wellbeing.

In order to achieve this, we have embedded inclusion as a key aspect of our national programme, working alongside Health Boards and other partners to encourage uptake, remove barriers and respond to evidence of low uptake in certain communities, including those from more deprived areas.

We have worked with Health Boards to map the locations of our vaccination clinics, ensuring that they are accessible for those in more deprived areas, and local partnerships with transport providers has supported people with free travel to appointments, if required.

Health Boards have also adapted their delivery models to ensure they are reaching communities with lower uptake. For example, mobile outreach units have been provided by the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) and some Health Boards have partnered with local transport providers to use their vehicles to take out into community settings. Pop-up and drop-in clinics are now being used across the country for those who are unable or unwilling to access the mass vaccination clinics. Health Boards plan the locations of these to suit the needs of their populations, and respond to evidence of lower uptake in certain areas.

The Coronavirus (COVID-19): vaccine deployment plan provides further information on our approach to delivering the vaccine to everyone in our society.

The Scottish Government held a meeting with key stakeholders, including Scottish Swimming, on 11 August to discuss water safety.

Discussions included the provision of lessons and also water safety education.

More discussions on how to move forward are scheduled for the coming weeks.

The Scottish Government does not routinely provide funding for Public Access Defibrillators (PAD). The purchase of PADs is usually through fundraising in the community, from charitable sources or business resources. Charities and organisations including the British Heart Foundation provide access to subsidised defibrillators.

In March this year, the Save a Life for Scotland (SALFS) partnership published an updated Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest strategy and a key part of this programme of work is to ensure mapping, maintenance and accessibility of defibrillators.

The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) is committed to supporting and improving the use of defibrillators across Scotland. SAS support and advice on Public Access Defibrillators (PAD) is available to any council, community, organisation or business from their community resilience teams. Further information can be found at:

www.scottishambulance.com/YourCommunity/Default.aspx .

We would encourage anyone wishing to install a PAD to work with a community group, if possible a specific community PAD group, who will offer support should a PAD be vandalised.

Transport Scotland recognise the importance of tourism to the Scottish economy and the role that Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders serve within this sector as popular tourist destinations. As the current signs on the M74 are in a good state of repair no reviews are currently planned. For new tourist signs to be considered on the Scottish Trunk Road that highlight visitor attractions, applications from the tourist attraction must meet the criteria set out in Transport Scotland’s Trunk Road and Motorway Tourist Signposting Guidance document.

As I noted in my statement to Parliament on 24 June, a single NHS Board first discovered in December 2020 that a small number of women who had subtotal hysterectomies had been wrongly excluded.

In 2016, a review was carried out of all individual records on the Scottish Cervical Call-Recall System (SCCRS) which had both a subtotal hysterectomy entry and also an open exclusion on the record. This was prompted by an IT error that had led to ‘no cervix’ exclusions being automatically added to the system when a subtotal hysterectomy was recorded together with recommended management of ‘no follow up’ or ‘no further recall’. This error was swiftly addressed.

In the course of addressing the issue, a number of other cases were identified, where a subtotal hysterectomy had been recorded on SCCRS and a manual exclusion had subsequently been opened. As soon as this was discovered, a process was initiated to identify all records on SCCRS with subtotal hysterectomies and open exclusions.

Following a rigorous review of affected records, it was established that some exclusions had been opened in error. Anyone affected was re-instated to the screening programme, and provided with a full explanation. Recommendations were made for safeguards to be put in place to prevent further instances of inappropriate manual exclusions.

At that time, it was believed that the records review had captured all affected patients, and there was no evidence to suggest further widespread errors in the recording of subtotal hysterectomies or the general application of exclusions.

It should be noted that, in 2006, in preparation for the migration to SCCRS, a data cleansing exercise was carried out. GP practices were provided with a list of women where there were discrepancies between the exclusion status and screening history and asked to resolve these before the transfer to SCCRS was complete.

This data cleansing exercise was standard good practice prior to the migration to SSCRS and did not uncover significant coding or data issues that gave rise to widespread concerns. Once the inconsistencies were resolved, the migration to SCCRS was carried out. A decision was made to migrate total hysterectomy information and all exclusions but not subtotal hysterectomy information, as individuals with subtotal hysterectomies would continue to be screened.

Although the actions taken in response to the issues detected in 2006 and 2016 were reasonable in light of the available evidence, we will consider whether there were opportunities to detect the wider issues now identified, and, if so, what lessons can be learned to strengthen monitoring and auditing going forward.

The Covid-19 test kits are home PCR kits provided by NHS Test & Trace. Currently, we are not using private test providers for international travellers arriving into Scotland from green and amber list countries.

We are having on-going discussions with the UK government on using private test providers, particularly about the speed and reliability of the flow of data from private companies. We are keen to understand fully the key performance indicators (KPIs) that have been recently set for these companies and the process should these not be met.

Detailed information on hospitalisations by age group and vaccine status of hospitalised patients is available in Public Health Scotland's Weekly Statistical reports. These are accessible here : Publications - Public Health Scotland

COVID-19 Statistical Report - 14 July 2021 - COVID-19 statistical report - Publications - Public Health Scotland

COVID-19 Statistical Report - 7 July 2021 - COVID-19 statistical report - Publications - Public Health Scotland

COVID-19 Statistical Report - 30 June 2021 - COVID-19 statistical report - Publications - Public Health Scotland

COVID-19 Statistical Report - 23 June 2021 - COVID-19 statistical report - Publications - Public Health Scotland

COVID-19 Statistical Report - 16 June 2021 - COVID-19 statistical report - Publications - Public Health Scotland

COVID-19 statistical report - 9 June 2021 - COVID-19 statistical report - Publications - Public Health Scotland

COVID-19 statistical report - 2 June 2021 - COVID-19 statistical report - Publications - Public Health Scotland

COVID-19 statistical report - 26 May 2021 - COVID-19 statistical report - Publications - Public Health Scotland

COVID-19 statistical report - 19 May 2021 - COVID-19 statistical report - Publications - Public Health Scotland

COVID-19 statistical report - 12 May 2021 - COVID-19 statistical report - Publications - Public Health Scotland

COVID-19 statistical report - 5 May 2021 - COVID-19 statistical report - Publications - Public Health Scotland

Details on age cohort, crossed with vaccination status is available in each report from the week starting 10th of May 2021 onwards.

Further information including charts and tables are available on Publish Health Scotland's Dashboard, available here : COVID-19 Daily Dashboard | Tableau Public

The Scottish Government has set up a National Vaccine Inclusive Steering Group with representatives from Health Boards, faith groups, third and community sector, and works closely with BEMIS, the national umbrella body supporting the development of the Ethnic Minorities Voluntary Sector in Scotland, and regularly participates in the Ethnic Minority National Resilience Group (EMNRG), which includes organisations representing the Polish Community.

Polish is one of the primary languages as set out by Public Health Scotland, and Polish translations have been prioritised for all coronavirus-related guidance, which has included regularly updated translations on NHS Inform, Strategic Framework updates on gov.scot and Polish translations of all National door drops. This is shared via SG Marketing, SG Policy, NHS 24 and via a number of stakeholders, to reach Polish communities.

Provision of messages/ guidance has been made to Polish community organisations in order to appropriately translate and share in language more likely to elicit action within the context of Polish culture/language. An explainer video for minority ethnic communities – tackling barriers – translated into Polish was developed as part of the Phase 2 campaign deliverables targeted at 18-49 year olds, which looks to address barriers to vaccine uptake identified by ME communities. The explainer video was produced in multiple languages including Polish, and provides key facts about the Covid vaccines for those who may be hesitant, or for those more likely to have been exposed to myths/misinformation. The content of this video has been shaped by engagement with BEMIS and the Ethnic Minority National Resilience Group, which includes input from the Polish community. This video has been distributed via partnership channels and via stakeholders to those groups who may not be as likely to be reached by traditional media.

FENIKS have been awarded funding via the Scottish Government award to BEMIS, for additional translations of Coronavirus vaccine information/materials into Polish. Feniks was set up in 2007 as a charity supporting integration and aiming at improving the wellbeing of the Central Eastern European Community in Edinburgh. It seeks to help individuals and families who have moved away from their homeland in facing the challenges which can result from immigration. https://www.feniks.org.uk

A live Q+A session was held online 6 July 2021 with Professor Jason Leitch, National Clinical Director, with the session chaired by Feniks. Key questions were gathered beforehand from members of the community, including issues causing some hesitancy, for example on vaccine efficacy and safety. The session was also translated live. The Scottish Government is continuing to support the work of Feniks on providing information and increasing uptake of Covid vaccine.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) are supporting the work of health boards including work continuing in local health board areas with the Polish community, including targeting workforces and large employers, including food processing.

The mesh fund is being administered by NHS National Services Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government. The following table illustrates, as at 26 July 2021, the number of applications approved, declined and pending:

Beyond the amounts spent for the United Kingdom via the national testing programme, resource spend within the Health portfolio in Scotland for 2020-21 was £152 million and capital spend was £21 million.