Chamber and committees

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 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 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Training places for social care are not centrally controlled. Demand for places is assessed through colleges working in partnership with employers to meet the needs of local labour markets.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-11664 on
1 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 does not hold this information. This information would require to be requested from individual health boards.