Chamber and committees

First, it is important to note that there has been no change in the Scottish Government policy on the remuneration arrangements for independent contractors or those working within a primary care settings participation in the COVID Vaccination programme.

The guidance for community pharmacy contractors was published on 26 November 2020 along with guidance for the other primary care contractor groups. This guidance can be accessed at: https://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/pca/PCA2020(P)26.pdf.

The guidance sets out the details to allow Health Boards to enter into arrangements with contractors to participate in the vaccination programme with those listed on the appropriate contractors / performers list.

In the case of community pharmacy, it is those entities listed on the Boards Pharmaceutical List to provide pharmaceutical services on behalf of the Health Board, in accordance with the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 and the National Health Service (Pharmaceutical Services) (Scotland) Regulations 2009.

Existing regulations do not currently provide for the provision of performers listing for the pharmacy profession and as such the remuneration arrangements for participation in the vaccination programme put in place for community pharmacy contractors does not apply to individual employees or self-employed locum pharmacists.

However, it would appear that some Health Boards applied the nationally agreed rate for community pharmacy contractors inappropriately to those self-employed locum pharmacists.

It is important to note that individual employees or locum pharmacists have not been removed from participating in the COVID-19 vaccination programme. Their skills are needed in this public health emergency and we would encourage those who are able to contact their local Health Board expressing their interest of joining the programme.

Each Health Board have arrangements in place for healthcare professionals, including pharmacists to support the roll out of the programme as vaccinators, while work is taken forward to build a sustainable vaccination workforce.

The specific arrangements may vary from Board to Board but in principle the individual would be recruited to the NHS Board Bank at the Agenda for Change Band 3 or 5 depending on the vaccinator role undertaken. However, some health boards may be offering sessional payment to individual locum pharmacists.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information as the rostering of vaccinator shifts is a matter for individual NHS Health Boards.

Information regarding funding amounts provided to community pharmacy contractors to provide COVID-19 vaccinators is not held centrally. The employment and deployment of COVID-19 vaccinators, including pharmacists, is a matter for individual Health Boards. To support them in this regard, the Scottish Government has agreed a sessional rate of £231 for pharmacist contractors participating in the programme. Each session covered by the rate lasts 3.5 hours.

The chief officers of health and social care partnerships were provided with a link to guidance on the Scottish Government website regarding the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020 and Coronavirus (Scotland) (No.2) Act 2020. This was provided on 7 April, the day all of the provisions in the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020 came into force, apart from those relating to the easements to s.13ZA of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968. Chief officers were advised of the relevant pages that contained guidance on adults with incapacity changes. That guidance made clear that the easements to s.13ZA would only come into force when and if Ministers approved its use by invoking regulations. This would be strictly only when evidenced as being absolutely necessary. These regulations did not come into force.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00280 on 14 June 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

Information on the anticipated number of face-to-face appointments is not held centrally by the Scottish Government as GP practices are responsible for their own patient appointment and consultation arrangements.

While the number of virtual appointments will have risen during the pandemic, GP practices could adopt virtual or other forms of remote working before the pandemic and there is no "full face-to-face service" as such to restore. GP practices are encouraged to retain any new ways of working developed during the pandemic which support access, quality, inclusivity, and continuity of patient care.

We can confirm that the first delivery of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine into Scotland, was on the 5 December 2020.

a) The app records the number of people that have “chosen to leave” (see the “Users that chose to leave” column in the table attached in reply to S6W-00767 on 30 June 2021).

b) Due to the anonymous nature of the app there is no way to know the number of people that have deleted the app.

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

See “Monthly Service Support Costs” and “Service Support Costs to date” columns in the table attached to reply for S6W-00765 on 30 June 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

The total number of downloads of the app are shown in the table attached in reply to S6W-00767 on 30 June 2021. The functionality to count the number of active daily app users has been improved since launch and currently indicates that there are around 980,000 active users each day.

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