Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government welcomes the 2017 Pulmonary Rehabilitation survey, published by Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland in partnership with the Scottish Pulmonary Rehabilitation Action Group on the provision of pulmonary rehabilitation in Scotland.

The Scottish Government recognises that pulmonary rehabilitation is an important element of respiratory disease care.

Pulmonary rehabilitation has a well-established evidence base for its benefit in helping to support self-management and reduce exacerbation and hospital admissions.

Pulmonary rehabilitation is a key recommendation in national clinical guidelines, which we expect NHS Boards to follow.

We are working with the Respiratory National Advisory Group to develop the Respiratory Health: Quality Improvement Plan.

The Scottish Government’s role is to provide frameworks, policies, and resources to enable Scotland’s NHS Boards to deliver the healthcare services that meet the needs of their local populations.

We note that whilst NHS Lothian currently leads the way in the provision of pulmonary rehabilitation there is much more to be done.

This is why from next year Scotland will be participating in the United Kingdom wide National Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease & Asthma audit. This audit has been a key driver for improvement in England and Wales and collects information on outcomes for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease including pulmonary rehabilitation which will assist Health and Social Care planners in developing services that will improve the care of their populations.

The 2017 Pulmonary Rehabilitation survey, published by Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland in partnership with the Scottish Pulmonary Rehabilitation Action Group notes that completion of pulmonary rehabilitation is a well-recognised challenge for a number of reasons, including the unpredictable nature of respiratory health.

Overall completion rates in Scotland are similar to those reported elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

Through the Respiratory National Advisory Group we would encourage the sharing of best practice from areas with higher completion rates and recommend that other solutions, such as digital are explored to help overcome some of the barriers highlighted in the survey.

Minutes of a meeting of Scottish Government officials with Chief Officers and Chief Finance Officers of a number of Integration Joint Boards, along with COSLA to discuss the implementation of Free Personal Care for under 65's, which took place on 26 October 2017, will be published on the Scottish Government website in the near future. Membership of this group will be expanded to form an implementation advisory group for the extension of free personal care. Minutes from this group will also be published on our website.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-11945 on
9 November 2017. 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 is aware of the study which considered the effect that increasing vitamin B3 in the diet had on preventing malformations in the growing foetus.

We understand the long term positive effects that good nutrition can have for pregnant women that is why we have introduced the universal offer of Healthy Start vitamins to pregnant women throughout their pregnancy. These vitamins contain the recommended daily dose, which contains vitamins C and D and folic acid to support a healthy pregnancy.

We will work with stakeholders to monitor the impact of expansion of early years workers on other areas of the social services workforce and to consider what action might be beneficial, in the light of any significant impacts identified.

Attracting and retaining the right people, and raising the status of social care as a profession, is key to delivering quality care. That’s why we have taken action to protect our social care services, including paying the Living Wage to adult care workers.

We support our public body, the Scottish Social Services Council, in their work to help and promote recruitment in the sector, which includes the development of foundation and modern apprenticeships, Career Ambassadors and a range of resources for those providing careers advice.

Follow-up appointments are dependent on the judgement of clinicians and their discussion with patients. Information on return patients is not collected centrally. ISD contacted each NHS Board around the feasibility of providing return waiting times for Chronic Pain and currently only two are collecting this data locally. This information is not submitted to ISD by these Boards.

Scotland is the only nation in the UK to regularly publish chronic pain waiting time statistics, and this data is already helping boards to improve services and reduce waiting times.

The GP Recruitment and Retention fund was set up to explore with key stakeholders, the issues surrounding GP recruitment and retention. The programme has examined and taken forward proposals to increase the number of medical students choosing to go into GP training, as well as encouraging those wanting to work in rural and economically deprived areas. To date this has resulted in a number of initiatives directly recruiting GPs as part of their test of change and numbers are reflected in the following table by health board area:

The fund is also supporting a range of initiatives including the establishment of a Scottish Rural Medicine Collaborative involving ten NHS Boards. This initiative will bring together recruitment strategies and support networks for GPs working in remote and rural areas; GPST bursaries for hard to fill places; Development of a new national GP recruitment website to be hosted and managed by NSS that will act as a one stop shop for GP recruitment across Scotland; and continued support for the NES Enhanced Returners scheme which supports GPs wishing to return to the profession. In Scotland over 90% of the 1082 GP Training places are now filled.

This information is not centrally held.

It is the responsibility of Health and Social Care Partnerships to plan and deliver services for their area using the integrated budgets under their control. This includes hospice and palliative and end of life care services.

In 2015, the year before integration went live, the Scottish Government published statutory guidance on strategic commissioning setting out that each Partnership's strategic commissioning plan should be based upon a Strategic Needs Assessment of local people, including those with palliative and end of life care needs. Within this wider context NHS Boards remain responsible for the procurement of palliative and end of life services, including those provided by Hospices.

Last year we announced funding of £30 million over five years to address the specific issue of support for children and young people’s palliative and end of life care needs. This investment brings funding for children's hospice services in line with that provided for adult hospice services.