Chamber and committees

Guidance is based on reviewing the available published evidence and informed by expert opinion drawn from a wide range of sources, including from behavioural sciences. Guidance and advice for the public is available through NHS Inform, a substantive media campaign is underway to raise awareness of these resources.

Clinical waste is regularly collected from Health Board sites. This arrangement means clinical waste is not stored for prolonged periods.

Information on the number of people who have received cancer treatment in each week since 1 January 2020 is not available yet from Public Health Scotland. Quarterly Information on the number of referrals who started first treatment up to the end of 2019 is available for the ten main cancer sites from the Cancer Waiting Times dataset. The ten main cancer sites are: breast, cervical, colorectal, head & neck, lung, lymphoma, ovarian, melanoma, upper gastro-intestinal (hepato-pancreato-biliary and oesophago-gastric), and urological (prostate, bladder, other). Quarterly information up to end of March 2020 will be available from 30 June 2020 .

Mental health legislation in Scotland provides for rigorous safeguards in respect of individuals’ human rights. Compulsory treatment is only allowed under very strict circumstances and certain criteria must be met before an order or certificate can be granted. In addition, treatment under mental health legislation is governed by a range of safeguards, for example medication which is to be given for more than two months, must be agreed to by a Designated Medical Practitioner — an experienced psychiatrist appointed by the Mental Welfare Commission. The Mental Health (Care and Treatment)(Scotland) Act 2003 also requires that orders and certificates should be kept under review and revoked or varied as appropriate, to support the principles of least restriction and maximum benefit. In addition, the independent Mental Health Tribunal grants and reviews orders for compulsory treatment.

The Scottish Government is commitment to creating a modern, inclusive Scotland which protects, respects and realises internationally recognised human rights.

As you are aware the independent review of the Mental Health Act which is chaired by John Scott QC is underway. The review aims to improve the rights and protections of people with a mental disorder and remove barriers to those caring for their health and welfare. It is due to publish an interim report by the end of May 2020.

The COVID-19 data and trend charts for Scotland are published daily and provide a range of information, including the number of care homes notifying cases of COVID-19 and the number of suspected cases of COVID-19 in care homes. These data are available from 11 April 2020 and are updated daily. There are also data on the number of people that have been tested for COVID-19 in Scotland, these are available from 2 March 2020 and provide a cumulative number. There is no breakdown of how many of these tests were for care home staff or residents.

Data are broken down by NHS board for:

• the cumulative number of cases that have tested positive for COVID-19;
• the number of patients in intensive care with confirmed or suspected COVID-19; and
• the number of patients in hospital with confirmed or suspected COVID-19.

The link to the daily data update is:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/trends-in-number-of-people-in-hospital-with-confirmed-or-suspected-covid-19/

The group was first convened on 26 March 2020 and has met every Monday and Thursday since then. Further information about the group, including notes of the discussions which have taken place, is available here: https://www.gov.scot/groups/scottish-government-covid-19-advisory-group/ .

The Scottish Government set out our approach to contact tracing on 4 May in the Test, Trace Isolate, Support Strategy . We will establish an enhanced COVID-19 contact tracing service in every Board. Recruitment and training of new staff will be managed by existing health protection teams who have high quality skills and experience in delivering contact tracing, and of which some are already undertaking COVID-19 contact tracing work. Recruitment has commenced in a phased approach, to introduce as necessary a national contract tracing team managing routine work and supporting local contact tracing teams. Initial workforce education resources for staff supporting the contact tracing programme have been developed in partnership with Health Boards and made available to all Health Boards before 25th May. All staff who will be recruited to undertaken Contact Tracing activity either at a national level or local level, will use these core materials to help ensure consistency across Health Boards in Scotland. As of 18 May 2020, c 680 staff have been identified locally and over 8000 notes of interest have been received nationally, in addition to those NHS returners who are being considered for deployment.

There have been no discussions between the Scottish Government and these organisations on the provision of exams for GP trainees, which are primarily issues for the statutory medical education bodies, the GMC and the Royal College to resolve.

On the recommendation from NHS Education for Scotland, the Scottish Government has however approved interim arrangements to enable those impacted to remain in their training posts in Scotland until solutions are agreed, including providing the estimated costs of £1.1m. There are ongoing discussions between these organisations, including participation from the BMA Junior Doctor Committee, to ensure all trainee GPs in their final year of training can complete their exams as soon as practically possible.

From the outset of the Covid-19 outbreak, the Scottish Government has maintained frequent contact with the General Medical Council, as well as the Nursing and Midwifery Council, Health and Care Professions Council and General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), to discuss and agree the phased roll-out of their Covid-19 temporary registers in exercise of their emergency powers.

In respect of the GMC, whose Registrar already had powers to temporarily register anyone deemed to be a "fit, proper and suitably experienced" person, the Covid-19 temporary register was established on 27 March 2020 for doctors who gave up registration or licence to practise in the previous 3 years. It was expanded on 2 April 2020 to include those who gave up registration in the previous 3-6 years and those who are registered but do not currently have a licence to practise. On 7 April 2020 it was further expanded to include final year medical students by accelerating the annual provisional registration process.

All cohorts have automatically been granted temporary registration on an opt-out basis. All doctors are registered on the Covid-19 register on the basis that there are no open fitness-to-practise investigations, sanctions or conditions on their practice.

The Scottish Government has made no decision on NHS laundry services and will not make a decision until we have addressed the current Covid-19 situation.