Chamber and committees

Scottish Government is supportive of NHSScotland sharing learning, and also learning from experience and practice of NHS England in relation to operational delivery of government policy, including neonatal policy.

Jenni Minto: The Scottish Government does hold the information on how much each NHS board spends on raising awareness of thrombosis.

Although the Scottish Government has not funded a national awareness raising campaign for thrombosis in recent years, in December 2023, Scottish Government social media health channels ran a series of online awareness-raising messages on the risks and symptoms of DVT.

In addition, the guidance available to the general public on NHS Inform on deep vein thrombosis is reviewed regularly to ensure it is up to date, with the most recent update taking place in July 2024.

To support clinicians, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) are responsible for publishing new rapid guidelines, with SIGN 122 and SIGN 163(specifically in relation to the prevention and management of venous thromboembolism (VTE) and VTE in patients with COVID-19 respectively) both being available.

SIGN supports the implementation of these guidelines by; raising awareness; networking with national projects and clinical networks; and developing implementation support tools and resources alongside specific guidelines.

The Scottish Government have no current plans run a national awareness campaign for thrombosis, however we are engaging with stakeholders and intend to mark World Thrombosis Day in October via social media channels.

Special Advisers in the Scottish Government are paid using the following Pay Bands and Pay Ranges which are effective from 1 April 2024:

The terms of Special Adviser contracts of employment are reserved to the UK Government. Those contracts include a requirement that severance payments are made to special advisers where their employment is terminated in the circumstances where a First Minister demits office, or on the dissolution of Parliament prior to a Scottish Parliamentary election. The value of severance payment due is dependent on an individual’s length of service and range from the equivalent of 3 months’ pay up to a maximum of 6 months’ pay.However, payment of severance is subject to agreement that should an individual be reappointed as a special adviser, they will repay any severance pay less the amount of salary they would have been paid had they been employed during the period between the termination of the previous contract and re-appointment on a fresh contract. Therefore the amount of severance to be repaid upon reappointment varies depending on the length of time between termination of employment and later reappointment. The following table sets out for each of the last 5 years to July 2024, the net cost of severance payments once the approximate level of repayments received are taken into account for those who were reappointed:

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of access to interdependent services, including those provided by allied health professionals such as physiotherapists, in order to optimise kidney transplant outcomes.

Under the Scottish Government’s Donation and Transplantation Plan: 2021-2026, a working group on transplant recipient aftercare has been set up. Access to physiotherapy services, which are generally provided when needed both via the Transplant Units themselves and by referring centres, has not so far been identified as an issue of particular concern for chronic kidney disease patients who have received a transplant in Scotland. We will continue to monitor the situation closely including by means of the working group.

I refer the member to the answer to S6W-26620 on 25 April 2024 for information on the progress of installing CSO monitors.

Overflow data is being published on Scottish Water’s website at https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/Your-Home/Your-Waste-Water/Overflow-Event-Data . As new monitors are installed, more information will become available in line with commitments under the Improving Urban Waters Routemap.

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 .

Transplant patients can experience a variety of emotions following their transplant and as a result the Scottish Government recognises the importance of psychological and emotional support. In order to better understand patients’ experiences, the Scottish Government carried out a patient survey on organ transplant aftercare and support between September and December 2023, receiving 569 responses from patients in Scotland, including 192 from those who had received a kidney transplant. The survey asked about patients’ experience of psychological and emotional support both before and after transplant; about the sources of such support; about patients’ preference for where to receive this support; and about whether they had any further comments about what would have improved their experience.

The Scottish Government is currently analysing the responses to the survey with the intention of publishing the analysis by the end of the year. Working with the Scottish Donation and Transplant Group, which brings together key stakeholders, and NHS National Services Division as commissioners, the Scottish Government will consider whether further actions might need to be taken in this area and how best to ensure patients get what they need.

The Scottish Government’s Donation and Transplantation Plan: 2021-2026 sets out a number of actions designed to help reduce waiting lists for a kidney transplant. This includes the use of novel technologies, which offer the opportunity to allow transplant units to use more “marginal” organs that may previously have been declined, by means of closer joint working between transplant units, and through work to increase living kidney donation.

Working through the Scottish Donation and Transplant Group, which brings together key stakeholders, and by means of NHS National Services Division's commissioning planning, we will to continue to monitor organ utilisation to encourage good practice. In addition, the Scottish Government and NHS Boards continue to raise awareness about organ donation in order to help increase numbers of deceased organ donors, for example during Organ and Tissue Donation Week, which will take place in September 2024.

Current targets for nursing and midwifery controlled funded places have been set for 3 years. Prior to that, targets for controlled places were set annually. The multi-year targets were set in 2022 after extensive engagement with key stakeholders. Those stakeholders included NHS Boards, NHS Board Planners, NHS Education for Scotland (NES), Council of Deans Health Scotland, Scottish Executive Nurse Directors, RCN, RCM, Unite, Unison and internal Scottish Government policy teams.

A multi-year intake was agreed to provide stability across partners including higher education institutions.

Both quantitative and qualitative data were considered when arriving at the controlled intake targets for each student group. A modelling exercise was carried out by NES to support decision-making and this information was made available to all stakeholders ahead of the engagement process. Stakeholders were also invited to share their own data in advance as well as being invited to discuss their insights on vacancies, establishment figures and clinical placement capacity.

The Scottish Government does not provide universities with planning assumptions for neonatal nurse places as these are decided within NHS Boards in order to match the resource requirements in the Board and training needs of their staff.

In line with the actions set out in the Scottish Government’s Donation and Transplantation Plan: 2021-2026 , a short-life working group has been set up to consider the issue of “timely transplantation” and to discuss perceived barriers to pre-emptive living donor kidney transplant and timely listing for deceased donor transplant. The group is currently gathering data and will report at the December 2024 meeting of the Scottish Donation and Transplant Group, which brings together key stakeholders.

In addition, as part of the Living Donation Scotland initiative, link nephrologists from each Renal Unit meet at an annual living donation event supported by the Scottish Government. A key objective is to work with nephrology colleagues to document transplant suitability on all electronic patient records in their patient groups so the multi-disciplinary team is aware of the individual pathway and progress, and this is now supported by the Renal Education and Choices at Home (REACH Transplant) nurses in each Renal Unit.