- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 29 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the £16 million allocated to stroke thrombectomy services in the draft Budget 2025-26.
Answer
Work is ongoing to establish how the £16 million funding announced in the draft Scottish budget will be best used to maximise the number of patients able to benefit from thrombectomy.
The new Scottish Budget was presented to Parliament on 4 December 2024 with £16 million allocated to the further development of the thrombectomy service and stroke policy. This details Scottish Ministers spend proposals for the year ahead and the Scottish Parliament will then scrutinise this information through the Scottish Budget Bill. Further details on the Scottish Budget and the Health and Social Care portfolio budget Finance can be found at; Scottish Budget 2025 to 2026.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 29 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) neuropsychologists and (b) trainee neuropsychologists there are, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
The latest data received by the Scottish Government from NHS Education for Scotland (NES) is as follows:
a) WTE Applied Psychologists working in Neuropsychology in NHS Scotland as of 30 September 2024:
NHS Board | WTE Applied Psychologists working in Neuropsychology |
NHS Scotland | 53.1 |
NHS Ayrshire & Arran | 5.9 |
NHS Borders | 0.0 |
NHS Dumfries & Galloway | 0.8 |
NHS Fife | 2.3 |
NHS Forth Valley | 2.4 |
NHS Grampian | 8.6 |
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde | 14.8 |
NHS Highland | 3.1 |
NHS Lanarkshire | 3.6 |
NHS Lothian | 8.3 |
NHS Orkney | 0.0 |
NHS Shetland | 0.0 |
NHS Tayside | 3.4 |
NHS Western Isles | 0.0 |
State Hospital | 0.0 |
Golden Jubilee National Hospital | 0.0 |
NHS Education for Scotland | 0.0 |
b) NHS Education for Scotland (NES) does not hold this information centrally.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 28 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government when the Scottish Screening Committee will next meet, and whether lung cancer screening will be an item on the agenda.
Answer
As set out in the answer to question S6W-33241 on 24 January 2025, Screening Oversight and Assurance Scotland are developing a business case for the implementation of a targeted lung screening programme, which is expected by the end of February 2025.
Following receipt, the Scottish Screening Committee will be convened to discuss its findings and consider next steps.
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
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will expand the Young Patients Family Fund eligibility criteria to (a) those attending day treatment and (b) under-25s.
Answer
There are no plans to expand eligibility of The Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF) at this time.
In addition to support available under the YPFF, financial support for travel to hospital is available via the patient travel expenses reimbursement schemes. Under those schemes, patients and authorised escorts can reclaim reasonable costs of travel associated with attending a hospital appointment, in line with eligibility criteria and medical requirements.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government which neurological conditions it has invested in through framework funding during the period covered by the Neurological Care and Support Framework for Action 2020–2025.
Answer
The largest proportion of funding has been awarded to projects that improve services for all or more than one neurological condition, including services for carers. Direct investment was also made to projects for the following specific conditions:
- Acquired Brain Injury
- Cerebral Palsy
- Epilepsy
- Functional Neurological Disorder (FND)
- Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)
- Migraine
- Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
- Parkinson’s Disease
- Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP)
- Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures
- Spina bifida/ hydrocephalus
A full list of projects funded through the Neurological Framework can be found here.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has identified the next priorities for the improvement of neurological care and support; if so, what these priorities are; what funding it will put towards achieving them, and over what time period.
Answer
Priorities for the Scottish Government are:
- national implementation of the Scottish Epilepsy Register,
- further adoption of successful approaches to improving services through the neurological conditions network,
- continued improvements in provision of ‘social support’ and psychological services for people with neurological conditions,
- continued development and adoption of condition specific care pathways,
- continued development and adoption of approaches to workforce planning and training for nursing, pharmacy, neuropsychology allied health professionals, and neurophysiology.
This work will be considered as part of the development of the Long Term Conditions Strategy due to be published later this year. Any required funding will be considered during the 2025-26 budget deliberations.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government which NHS boards have not received any direct investment in neurology services since the start of the period covered by the Neurological Care and Support Framework for Action 2020-2025.
Answer
All Health Boards in Scotland receiving baselined funding from the Scottish Government toward their neurology services. As part of Planned Care funding, the Scottish Government has also invested £217,000 in total towards improving waiting times in NHS Tayside and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
Through the Neurological Framework, the Scottish Government has given direct investment to numerous territorial Health Boards to undertake projects focusing on neurological care, in line with the Framework’s commitments. Health Boards that have received direct investment are:
- NHS Ayrshire and Arran
- NHS Forth Valley
- NHS Grampian
- NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
- NHS Lanarkshire
- NHS Lothian
- NHS Orkney
- NHS Tayside
Third sector organisations have also been awarded funding to work in partnership with a number of statutory organisations to better integrate services, including NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Fife. The Migraine Trust has worked in partnership with seven NHS boards to improve treatment for migraine in community pharmacy.
A full list of projects funded through the Neurological Framework can be found here.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether any so-called postcode lottery in neurological care and support provision has been fully addressed through the actions set out in the document, Neurological Care and Support in Scotland: A Framework for Action 2020 – 2025.
Answer
The aims contained in the document Neurological Care and Support in Scotland: A Framework for Action 2020 – 2025 are applicable to healthcare delivery across Scotland. Through this we have supported a number of national initiatives to improve care and reduce variation, including:
- Self-evaluation by all NHS boards against the General Standards for Neurological Care and Support 2019. Development of national care pathways for headache and Functional Neurological Disorder, with care pathways for further conditions in development
- Agreement of a Business Case and funding to adopt the Scottish Epilepsy Register across Scotland, improving the safety and quality of care for people with epilepsy
- Development of a neurology nurse specialist competency framework
- Formation of collaborative improvement networks which include NHS boards, Health and Social Care Partnerships, third sector organisations and people with lived experience to encourage consistent adoption of the successful approaches funded through the Framework
- Development, by third sector partners, of a toolkit for the consistent commissioning of social support for people with epilepsy
- Improved provision of public information on individual neurological conditions through the development and/or revision of 23 NHS inform webpages
- Through national charities, development of nationally-accessible sources of self-management support for people with MS, spina bifida hydrocephalus, progressive supranuclear palsy, cerebral palsy and non-epileptic seizures
- Re-development of the internationally recognised neurosymptoms.org web resource to support people with Functional Neurological Disorder
- Dissemination of nationally-accessible clinician education resource for ME/CFS
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the priorities from the Neurological Care and Support Framework for Action 2020-2025 that will not have been reached by the end of the framework period.
Answer
A final report on the Neurological Care and Support in Scotland: A Framework for Action 2020-2025 will be published by the Scottish Government when the Framework reaches the end of its agreed lifespan. An assessment of future priorities for neurological conditions will be included.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Stroke Improvement Plan 2023 to deliver a detailed plan for further development of the national thrombectomy service before the end of 2023, whether it remains committed to publishing such a plan, and, if so, when it plans to do so, and whether it will commit to publishing this in 2025.
Answer
The commitment in the Stroke Improvement Plan to publish a plan for further development of the national thrombectomy service in the second half of 2023 was published in December 2023, available at: Thrombectomy Service Update and Expansion Outline
It should be noted that, since publication, the National Thrombectomy Programme Board has, on the advice of NHS National Services Division, moved away from an options appraisal approach in favour of maximising access to thrombectomy and a stepwise approach to service expansion.