Chamber and committees

The Covid-19 test kits are home PCR kits provided by NHS Test & Trace. The cost of the kits is set by the UK Government and the process managed through its contract with the travel management company, so we are unable to influence the cost of these.

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 discussion 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.

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 timing for restarting the over-70’s self-referral scheme is regularly reviewed. The Breast Screening Programme Board (BSPB) agreed criteria to resume the option for women over 70 to self-refer in line with the programme’s recovery route map. The option for women over 70 to self-refer into the breast screening programme will resume once all screening centres are able to offer those aged 53-70 their breast screening appointments within 39 months of their previous screening. Progress towards this criteria is being closely monitored, and the National Screening Oversight, National Screening Committee and BSPB continue to work with Health boards to increase the number of available appointments within the programme.

Regardless of their age, women should remain symptom aware and report any symptoms to their GP immediately for these to be investigated.

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.

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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-01898 on
‎ 23 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.

Attendance and absence figures for 2020-21 are currently based on daily management information and has only been subjected to limited quality checking.

Bearing this in mind, since March 2021, this data shows that:

Primary Schools

• 26.1% of primary pupils were not in school more than 10% of the time
• 1.0% of primary pupils were not in school more than 50% of the time

Secondary Schools

• 50.1% of secondary pupils were not in school more than 10% of the time
• 5.0% of secondary pupils were not in school more than 50% of the time

Only pupils who had a total of at least 50 half day openings have been included in the analysis (note: where half-day sessions refer to mornings/afternoons when schools were providing learning), which was based on daily management information from 15 March 2021 – 2 April 2021 (inclusive - primary schools only) and 12 April 2021 – 25 June 2021 (inclusive - primary and secondary schools). Note that between 15 March 2021 and 2 April 2021 secondary schools were still closed to most pupils. As such, this period has not been included in the analysis for secondary schools.

The Scottish Government will be publishing its National Statistics on pupil attendance and absence in due course. These figures will be more subjected to quality assurance procedures, and as such, will be of higher quality than our current data.

Information relating to complaints associated with specific medical treatments such as CPR is not collected centrally.

If an individual wishes to raise a complaint about NHS treatment or care this should be addressed at a local level through the NHS Complaints Handling Procedure (CHP). The Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011 and supporting legislation, provides a specific right for people to make complaints, raise concerns, make comments and give feedback to NHS Boards. The Act also places a duty on NHS Boards to thoroughly investigate and respond to any concerns raised, to take improvement actions where appropriate and to share learning from the views they receive. Where an individual remains dissatisfied with the outcome of the CHP investigation, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) is the second and final stage in the complaints process.

Transport Scotland does not hold data on the percentage of passengers wearing face coverings while using public transport. However, ScotRail advise that the most recent observed levels indicate between an average of 80% and 90% of passengers wearing face coverings. The Confederation for Passenger Transport (CPT), who represent bus operators, advise recent observed levels indicate an average of around 80% of passengers wearing face coverings. In relation to ferries, operators have advised that they estimate that observed levels indicate around 85-95% of passengers wearing face coverings whilst using their services.

The recently observed levels do not include those who may be exempt from wearing face coverings on account of age and health conditions and so the levels of compliance with the regulations will be higher than the observed average percentages of passengers wearing face coverings.

As previously set out in the Chamber, Scottish Government will take forward a comprehensive review of the arrangements in place for provision of financial support for patient travel. This review will take full account of the matters raised by Members.

Regrettably, this review has been delayed due to prioritisation of NHS recovery and remobilisation planning, and will be taken forward as soon as possible.