Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government recently awarded Chest, Heart & Stroke Scotland and the Research Resuscitation Group (Edinburgh University) funding to deliver a pilot project of telephone support and the development of website information for people who witness an out of hospital cardiac arrest/sudden cardiac death.

There have been two pieces of work carried out in relation to training and education for the wider Healthcare Science professional group of which cardiac physiology is one specialty. The baseline exercise Healthcare science - education and training provision: baseline review - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) has provided an overview of the education and training landscape for Healthcare Science.

The outcomes of this work has informed the context of the scoping review committed to within the National Workforce strategy 2022. Recommendations have been made as to the next steps and once confirmed these will be shared with the wider stakeholder groups.

Under the Heart Disease Task Force oversight, a Short Life Working Group has been supporting the development of a layer of cardiac specific competencies intended to complement the wider Transforming Nursing Roles competencies for Clinical Nurse Specialists.

The Scottish Government is currently working with NHS Education for Scotland to identify a workplan for the next phase of the Transforming Roles Programme. This involves agreeing priority actions and implementing outstanding recommendations from the ‘Transforming Nursing, Midwifery and Health Professions’ Roles: Review of Clinical Nurse Specialist and Nurse Practitioner Roles within Scotland’ publication.

At a time of significant system pressure, this priority setting is to be undertaken as part of wider considerations in collaboration with the Scottish Executive Nurse Directors Group in Spring 2023.

In addition, the Allied Health Professional Education and Workforce Policy Review that considered the actions necessary to deliver a national education and workforce plan for AHPs has now been completed. The recommendations will be published early 2023 and an implementation plan will be developed thereafter.

In September, NHS Education for Scotland and the Scottish Government hosted a webinar on ‘Delivering a Person-Centred Approach to Rehabilitation in a Post-COVID era’. The webinar formed part of Scottish Government’s work to raise awareness of the Once for Scotland Person-Centred Approach to Rehabilitation. More than 1,000 people with an interest in rehabilitation took part.

In April 2021, Scottish Government commissioned Public Health Scotland to develop and deliver the Scottish Cardiac Audit Programme. This programme will support delivery of the actions in Priority 4 of the Heart Disease Action Plan (2021). This will include enabling access to heart disease related data and intelligence.

We provide information and resources on the use of Anticipatory Care Plans to professionals, patients, and their families to ensure people get the right care in the right place at the right time. In 2021, Healthcare Improvement Scotland developed the Anticipatory Care Planning Toolkit consisting of a 4-step model, guidance, and resources for health professionals.

NHS Education for Scotland has educational resources for professionals delivering training about shared decision-making and anticipatory care planning (Realistic Conversations).

The Heart Failure Hub has endorsed, and is supporting the dissemination of, Patient and Health Care Professional Cardiac Supportive Palliative Care resources developed by the British Society for Heart Failure - Patient info and HCP resources — British Society For Heart Failure (bsh.org.uk)

The National Integrated Workforce Strategy published in 2019 committed to increase the Cardiac Physiologist workforce, thereby increasing capacity to carry out diagnostic testing, by supporting an additional 30 training places on the 4 year BSc course in Clinical Physiology.

Over the next 3-5 years we will also focus on increasing the workforce by promoting recruitment into Scientist Training Programmes and Practitioner BSC Programmes” We have supported 17 new practitioners through the 4 year BSc Course and 13 new Clinical Scientists.

More recently in 2022, the Clinical Physiology Executive Board has scoped and collected data on all physiology science services. The information that has been garnered from this exercise will feed into the wider strategic piece of work in relation to Healthcare Science education and training.

Delivery of this action is a long term objective of the plan. The National Heart Disease Task Force will consider the prioritisation of work to be undertaken in 2023-24 as part of our ongoing implementation of the commitments within the Heart Disease Action Plan.

In order to provide a wide-range of rehabilitation approaches, a skilled workforce is required that spans health, social care and third and independent sectors. The workforce brings a range of skills that can vary across sector and by background.

Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) make up a significant proportion of the rehabilitation workforce. The AHP Education and Workforce Policy Review considered the actions necessary to deliver a national education and workforce plan for AHPs. This has now been completed. The recommendations will be published early 2023 and an implementation plan will be developed thereafter.

In April 2021, Scottish Government commissioned Public Health Scotland to develop and deliver the Scottish Cardiac Audit Programme. Over 100 clinicians and people with lived experience have been involved in the development of draft indicators for this programme. This includes health care professionals with an interest in specialist services, cardiac rehabilitation and palliative care.

Draft indicators were shared for further feedback in autumn 2022. PHS continue to work to develop the audit programme based on this feedback.