Question reference: S6W-19814
- Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 4 July 2023
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Current status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 17 July 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the level of awareness of Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) standard 7 among healthcare professionals working in primary care settings, and what steps are being taken to raise awareness among this group.
Answer
The Scottish Government has not fully assessed the level of awareness of MAT standard 7 among healthcare professionals working in primary care settings. Local services are being supported to implement the MAT standards by the MAT Implementation Support Team (MIST) which includes healthcare professionals with experience in primary care.
The National Mission benefits from the expertise of a Clinical Advisory Group of healthcare professionals and the implementation of the standards is also supported by NHS Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) which has primary care professionals on its MAT team.
Given the involvement of this support for implementing the standards and through their ongoing engagement with services all healthcare professionals working in primary care settings that have contractual arrangements in place to provide medication assisted treatment should be aware of MAT standard 7.
In January 2023, in the Cross-Government Plan published by the Scottish Government included a commitment to ring-fence £30 million of the funding available to General Practice to encourage more primary care providers to take on Enhance Service provision to support people impacted by drugs.