Chamber and committees

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) holds annual negotiations with Scottish Care, the representative body of the independent care home sector, to set appropriate and consistent fee levels across Scotland for publicly funded clients as part of the National Care Home Contract.

A programme of work around the reform of the NCHC undertaken by COSLA and Scottish Care has led to a significant uplift in the NCHC rate in 2018-19 of 3.39%, using detailed benchmarking data to accurately reflect the cost of providing care to care home residents.

In recognition of the costs of residential care to self funders, we have increased the Free Personal and Nursing Care payments to self-funders with inflation in 2018 to £174/week for personal care and £79/week for nursing care. We are proud of the continued provision of free personal care to over 65s, and from 1st April 2019, those under the age of 65 will also benefit from this policy.

The information requested is not held centrally. Mesh used in a transvaginal setting is procured directly by Health Boards and ‘transvaginal mesh kits’ have never been procured through national contracts. The amount of mesh procured cannot be accurately established, given that there are a range of suppliers and varying units and systems within Health Boards to procure small volume medical devices, such as mesh, as required.

The Scottish Government does not hold information centrally on waiting times for the delivery of care packages for people diagnosed with life-limiting conditions.

However the Scottish Government publishes information on the time interval between completion of assessment and service delivery for people aged 65+ with personal care needs. The figures are shown for Scotland and for each local authority. This can be found on the Scottish Government website: https://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Health/Data/QuarterlySurvey/ECWT082017

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-05785 on 16 January 2018. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The Scottish Government estate comprises 73 buildings of which 18 are Crown owned. Of these 18 there are 2 that make use of local natural stone, these are Saint Andrew's House and Governor's House - both of which are Grade A listed properties in Edinburgh. There is a 'stone graveyard' situated in the grounds of Saint Andrew's House which allow replacement stones to weather over time. Both properties are surveyed annually in line with our Conservation Plan and should there be a need to replace any stone this is undertaken as part of Planned Maintenance for the properties.

As the lead public body for our historic environment Historic Environment Scotland (HES) promotes the use of traditional building materials (which can be locally sourced) in relation to the care and maintenance of historic building stock, where appropriate, including in relation to historic properties in the care of public bodies. HES works closely with the Scottish Stone Group and wider stone industry sector to support the production and use of natural Scottish stone. HES has an ongoing Collaborative Partnership Agreement with the British Geological Survey in order to promote the use and production of natural stone in Scotland. As part of this Agreement, HES launched a publicly accessible Building Stone Database for Scotland in June 2018 to provide information on historic and current sources of traditionally used building stone across Scotland.

As part of the organisation's Action Framework for traditional building materials, due to be finalised later this year, HES is committing to producing guidance on the specification and procurement of traditional Scottish materials, including stone, for public bodies. HES has also produced a ‘Managing Change in the Historic Environment guidance note on External Walls’ which acknowledges local materials and traditions as an important element in defining the character of the building in question. The guidance note also promotes maintenance and appropriate repair as the best means of safeguarding the character of historic buildings.

Data collection processes connected to the introduction of PACS Tier Two are currently in progress. Initial PACS Tier Two application statistics will be made available as part of the previously announced reviews of the process after six and twelve months.

The first set of quarterly statistics are expected by mid-October.

The Scottish Government and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have been in regular contact to discuss NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's plans to ensure easy access into their buildings. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, the Royal Hospital for Children's project team and the Contractor have ongoing meetings since March 2018 to ensure that all matters that may impact on the patients and staff due to these works are kept to a minimum.

The temporary relocation of the entrance to the Royal Hospital for Children has been planned in conjunction with the site management team and appropriate safety precautions and temporary signage directing patients and visitors to the reassigned principal entrance are in place.

This phase of the works to the Children’s Hospital is scheduled for completion by the 6th March 2019, given the current progress of the works on site it is considered that this date will be brought forward and the front entrance will be reinstated quicker than the current programme.

We are continuing to work towards the implementation of the recommendations from the Review of Access to New Medicines.

Recent developments include the publication of the Access to Medicines Data Scoping Taskforce Report “Building Capability to Assess Real-World Benefits, Risk and Value of Medicines: Towards a Scottish Medicines Intelligence Unit”. The new “Ultra-Orphan” decision pathway will also begin to come into place from October 2018. And the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) continues to enhance its effectiveness and accessibility to the public, and has now begun to publish new explanatory leaflets about individual decisions.

From August 2018, the SMC also introduced interim accepted advice for medicines with a conditional marketing authorisation from the European Medicines Agency.

The ePharmacy Programme is a multi-year programme that has helped revolutionise the way GP prescriptions are issued, dispensed at community pharmacies and processed for payment by the NHS, using Electronic Transmission of Prescriptions.

Over 100 million prescriptions are dispensed in the community annually in Scotland, with over 90% of these prescribed by GP practices and dispensed at a community pharmacy. Over 97% of GP prescriptions in the community are now issued electronically; of these over 93% are claimed by the pharmacies electronically and of these over 90% of these items are processed for payment automatically. This means that over 75 million items per year are now fully automated, with no transcription errors between prescribing and dispensing, delivering efficiency savings, and improvements in payment accuracy. All this has been achieved through the electronic prescription and pharmacy dispensing systems provided through the ePharmacy Programme.