Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Operational decisions on matters such as this are for Police Scotland with oversight from the Scottish Police Authority. You may wish to contact them directly.

This is an operational matter for Police Scotland with oversight from the Scottish Police Authority. You may wish to contact them directly.

We have already invested £30 million to reduce waiting lists that built up throughout the pandemic. This funding is being targeted at a series of national and local plans to reduce backlogs by maximising the use of local and national resources across Scotland. As part of this, we have allocated additional funding to Gynaecology services which we expect to deliver around 3,500 new outpatient appointments.

The Budget we set out on 4 December 2024 will throw the weight of the government behind performance improvements with almost £200 million to reduce waiting lists and help support reduction of delayed discharge. By March 2026, we expect no one to be waiting longer than 12 months for a new outpatient, inpatient treatment or day case treatment.

With regards to the average wait times across all boards compared with waiting times in rural areas such as Aberdeenshire, this information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government the member may wish to contact NHS Grampian directly for information.

On 30 October, the Scottish Government published the Transport to Health delivery plan which sets out commitments against transport and healthcare across the work of Health and Social Care and Transport Scotland. The plan was informed by the 2019 Transport to health and social care report prepared by the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland (MACS) on behalf of Ministers.

As set out in the plan, we will support Regional Transport Partnerships to develop their own plans around Transport to Health. An example of this will be continuing to support the work of the Health and Transport Action Plan led by NESTRANS and partners in Aberdeenshire.

Transport Scotland have included Transport to Health as one of seven thematic workstreams in their approach for delivery of the Accessible Travel Framework.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-33681 on 27 January 2025. 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

There are therefore no financial barriers to receiving optometry services.

All referrals to the hospital eye service from community optometry are electronic and enable the attachment of retinal images and other examination results to aid the triaging of the patients. In addition, since the initial onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Scottish Government has facilitated the use of technology to support remote consultations under General Ophthalmic Services which is likely to be of particular benefit to patients living in rural areas. The cloud-based national Electronic Patient Record is also being used by community optometrists providing the Community Glaucoma Service - an important technological initiative supporting safe and high quality care.

Through implementation of the Women’s Health Plan we have established an NHS Board Women’s Health Lead Network with a Lead in every NHS Board. The Network enables the Leads to identify both common and local challenges and exchange ideas on innovation and best practice, along with discussions on progress to implement the Women’s Health Plan.

We have a clinical Menopause Specialists Network, which enables clinicians across Scotland with an interest in menopause care to share initiatives and good practice and discuss emerging challenges encouraging consistency of advice which can then be shared with local primary care teams.

We also established a National Menstrual Health Clinical Network to provide clinicians across Scotland with access to peer support, consistent expert clinical advice and facilitate further learning opportunities.

Further information about the progress to date against each of the priorities in the Women’s Health Plan can be found in the Women’s Health Plan Final Report.

This year we invested £30m which is driving targeted action to address the longest delays. This will see around 24,000 New Outpatient Appointments and Inpatient/ Day-Case procedures as well as over 40,000 diagnostic procedures. The funding has included diagnostic services in NHS Grampian, NHS Shetland and NHS Orkney.

Public Health Scotland publishes annual data on NHS eye examination on their website at: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/ophthalmic-workload-statistics/ophthalmic-workload-statistics-statistics-as-at-year-ending-31-march-2024/.

Figure 5b of that report provides data on referrals from community optometry to the hospital eye service.

Routinely collected data on the waiting time for a diagnosis of endometriosis are not available.

However, in 2024 Endometriosis UK published a report based on a survey of 4,371 people who received a diagnosis of endometriosis from a medical practitioner or following a diagnostic intervention. The report suggested that the current average waiting time for a endometriosis diagnosis in Scotland is now 8 years and 10 months.

Endometriosis has two stages of diagnosis, a working diagnosis at primary care level and a confirmed diagnosis via laparoscopy at secondary care. Not everyone with endometriosis will want to have a laparoscopy to confirm their diagnosis, particularly if their symptoms can be well managed.

We know that excessively long waits for laparoscopy are not acceptable and we apologise to all patients waiting too long. We are determined to drive improvements in this area and continue to work with NHS boards on a number of actions which will see patients treated as quickly as possible.

We want people to achieve a working diagnosis as soon as possible to enable swift access to appropriate care and treatment.

There are several treatment options to manage the symptoms of endometriosis. These include pain management options and hormonal contraception as well as surgical interventions including laparoscopy. There is no cure for endometriosis. More information can be found on NHS Inform.

As set out in the Endometriosis Care Pathway for NHS Scotland clinicians should consider women’s individual needs in order to determine treatment for example symptoms, aspects of daily living and desire for fertility.

Through the actions set out in our Women’s Health Plan we have taken steps to support both women and health professionals to learn more about endometriosis, the symptoms and treatment options.

Further information about the progress to date against each of the priorities in the Women’s Health Plan can be found in the Women’s Health Plan Final Report.