Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government provides daily information on a range of COVID-19 measures to the UK Department of Health and Social Care and to the Civil Contingencies Secretariat in the Cabinet Office to co-ordinate, inform and report on the COVID-19 position across the UK.

At the outset of the pandemic, the four Chief Medical Officers covering Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, published a list of six groups where people would be considered to be at extremely high risk of severe illness should they contract COVID-19. Clinicians can also add individuals to the list if they feel it is clinically appropriate to do so.

The UK Chief Medical Officers agreed to seek consistency across the shielding list to support patients across the UK. Having differing advice in different countries would cause confusion for patients, clinicians and support groups.

In order to ensure a consistent approach is being taken across the four nations in relation to shielding, a Review Panel has was established.

The main remit of the Review Panel is to review the evidence on potential clinical risk factors for severe illness from COVID-19; and advise the senior clinicians group on whether to add or remove specific conditions to the extremely clinically vulnerable group.

Information on the number of pregnant women who have attended pregnancy scans in each week in 2019 and 2020 is not collected centrally by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government does not hold the specific breakdown of information requested. In total, there were 20,883 individuals on the shielding list that were requested to shield as part of the bloods cancers category the question refers to. This figure excludes non-Scottish residents. A specialist group of Haematologists in Scotland convened to further inform which patients should be considered at high risk. This work concluded on 14 April.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on urgent suspected cancer referrals for April 2019. This data is not held as we do not have a two week urgent referral target as in Scotland.

The Scottish Government focuses on the 'whole cancer pathway' rather than a 2 week wait to first appointment which the 62-day standard is in place. This covers the period from urgent suspected referral from a GP or screening to start of treatment.

In Scotland the current Cancer Waiting Times standards are as follows:

31-day standard from decision to treat until first treatment for all new cancers regardless of route of referral

62-day standard from urgent referral with suspicion of cancer, including referrals from national screening programmes

To ensure patient's with worrying symptoms were approaching their GP we launched the NHS is Open campaign on 24 April 2020. Since the launch Health Boards management information shows that for the week ending 26 April, urgent suspected cancer referrals have increased and are now approximate 55% of the pre COVID-19 level. We have emphasised, and will continue to do so, that decisions around treatment should be jointly made between patients and clinicians and fully informed conversations should be had with patients about their treatment.

The safety of our essential frontline care workforce is an absolute priority, and we are continuously looking to improve the supply and distribution of PPE that is so vital in the fight against COVID-19. This is irrespective of whether those workers work in sheltered housing, retirement homes, in people’s own homes or in residential and nursing care.

In both the private and public sectors the supply of PPE for social care is primarily the responsibility of social care providers themselves. However, we recognise the immense pressure that global supply chains have been put under as a result of the pandemic, and therefore we established routes in March to support the sector with supplies from the national stock.

These routes are the NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) Social Care PPE Triage helpline and deliveries of PPE to local Hubs in Health and Social Care Partnership areas for onward distribution or collection by social care providers.
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The local PPE Hubs are now supporting the whole social care sector, including retirement and sheltered housing providers, with all of its PPE needs where normal supply routes have failed; and are also supporting unpaid carers and social care Personal Assistants with their PPE needs.

Retirement and sheltered housing providers can access these routes alongside other organisations and individuals providing social care support.

To date (correct as at 26 May 2020), just over 7.1 million items of PPE have been distributed to housing support services through these national routes. This is additional to the PPE that these providers have acquired through their own normal supply routes. This figure does not include the additional PPE that has also been provided to care at home staff from other providers who go into retirement and sheltered housing to provide care and support.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on patient registrations. NHS NSS holds data on where patients are registered for practice payment purposes and transfer of records.

Expectant mothers do not have to register with a GP because they are expectant; they would only need to register if they were moving area or otherwise seeking a new practice. It is probable that fewer expectant mothers have registered during the lockdown than otherwise would have as less people will have moved to new areas and those who have might have put off registration if they do not need immediate appointments with a GP.

Patients are currently using several different ways to contact the NHS with the majority of consultations taking place by telephone. We are encouraging the use of video for consultations where it’s necessary to see the patient, such as for skin conditions or to view their general wellbeing. The monthly and weekly figures for Near Me video consultations are listed in the following table, with weekly usage figures only available from March.

Between 19 March (when the NHS National Services Scotland social care PPE triage helpline was launched) and 15 May, the following products have been distributed to residential care homes from the national stock. This is a daily changing picture, and the number of items will now be higher.

Aprons   4,564,502

Gloves   6,750,069

Masks   3,102,461

Eye Protection 156,935

FFP3     320

Visors   200

Total     14,574,487

Health Protection Scotland (HPS) has published infection control guidance for care homes which is updated regularly and most recently on 20 May. The HPS guidance is based on the National Infection Prevention and Control Manual and includes advice on how to prevent and manage the spread of all respiratory infections including COVID-19.

To supplement HPS guidance, the Scottish Government also issued clinical and practice guidance for care homes. This was first published on 13 March and updated on 26 March and 15 May. This guidance draws on the HPS guidance but provides more detailed information on some of the practical steps that are required to protect staff and residents. Both the HPS and the Scottish Government guidance are continually reviewed to take account of the emerging picture around COVID-19.