Chamber and committees

Board trajectories against the 62 day cancer standard have been requested from all Health Boards.

These will be submitted to the Scottish Government's Health & Social Care Performance & Delivery Assurance Board for review and approval by the end of August.

Once agreed, performance against the trajectories will be monitored monthly by the Scottish Government and the East and West Subnational Planning & Delivery Committees to support delivery and ensure progress is maintained.

Public Health Scotland published data on 28 July, this can be accessed online- General practice walk-in centres - month ending 30 June 2026 - General practice walk-in centres - Publications - Public Health Scotland.

We have commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland to work on the evaluation of the pilot, in conjunction with Public Health Scotland. The Scottish Government expects a final report to be received once the pilot has concluded.

To date £18,007,797.50 has been allocated to boards for the walk-in pilot with opportunities to draw down further funding later within the financial year. Funding for next year will follow usual Budget processes.

A national monitoring and evaluation framework is being developed by Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Public Health Scotland and NHS Boards. This will assess cost, activity, patient experience, workforce impact, health inequalities, clinical safety and wider system effects. The walk-in services are designed to provide an additional route for patients to access same-day care for minor illnesses. Itis hoped that this will free up capacity within GP practices to focus on patients with complex, longer term conditions which require continuity of care.

Health Boards are responsible for the operational management of walk-in services, including all decisions about staffing. I would advise that you contact the Boards directly to request this information.

The Scottish Government has not undertaken an analysis of this comparison. However, there is evidence that thrombectomy is a cost-effective procedure with known benefits including a reduction in ongoing care requirements and we remain committed to the delivery of a 24/7 thrombectomy service.

We remain committed to the delivery of a 24/7 thrombectomy service. Public Services Delivery Scotland(PSDS) are obtaining the requisite clinical, planning, financial and staffing information from NHS Boards, including NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, to understand the requirements to deliver 24/7 thrombectomy availability across Scotland.

The Scottish Government has not conducted a specific analysis of the impact of thrombectomy access on inpatient stroke rehabilitation services in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

We are focusing care for the smallest and sickest babies in three neonatal intensive care units in Scotland. This decision is based on clear evidence that that the outcomes for these babies, who are born at less than 27 weeks gestation, or who need multiple complex life support interventions or surgery, are improved when they are born and cared for in a unit where that specialist care is concentrated, with a high throughput of cases, and where support services are co-located. The vast majority of sick babies will continue to be cared for in local neonatal units, and these units will continue to provide a level of intensive care. It is important that we continue to move forward with implementation of this change, it is what families would expect us to do.

The Taskforce has met three times. A paper on neonatal priorities was shared at the third meeting, however that paper did not propose reconsideration of the location of neonatal intensive care units in Scotland.