Chamber and committees

During our engagement on the next Mental Health Strategy, we invited written responses on an engagement paper outlining our proposed priorities, and received nearly 600 responses.

The responses were independently analysed and a full report published online, which can be viewed at: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/12/1634/0

One of the groups suggested as a priority by respondents was families and carers.

All of the feedback we received has helped shape our thinking when developing the Strategy, which we will publish in the coming weeks.

The Scottish Government is committed to increasing physical activity and we want to make Scotland a more active country by encouraging people, and in particular young people, to make physical activity a part of their everyday lives.

98% of primary and secondary schools across Scotland continue to provide at least two hours or two periods of PE each week, in line with the Programme for Government 2016 commitment to maintain the PE commitment. There are no plans to review this target.

This information is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government does not directly support the Spartans alternative school in Edinburgh or any other similar institutions across Scotland. Some Edinburgh schools do contribute to costs but that, and funding for any similar institutions, is a matter for schools and local authorities to consider based on their local needs and circumstances.

NHS Lothian will be taking over Deans and Eliburn Medical Practice from 1 April 2017 and will ensure that patients continue to receive a high standard of care.

NHS boards have various means of supporting independently contracted practices which request assistance. We expect Health boards to work with practices as constructively and as flexibly as is appropriate to ensure that all patients have access to GP services. The Scottish Government is aware of concerns around recruitment issues in Lothian and elsewhere in Scotland, these will be taken into account as the 2017 GMS contract negotiations go forward.

In 2017-18 we will invest £72 million in the Primary Care Fund to improve primary care and GP services. As part of this, £5 million will be invested in work to explore with key stakeholders the issues surrounding GP recruitment and retention. This is the first step to increase spending on Community Health Services by £500 million by 2021-22 so that it is at least £1,283 million. This commitment will mean that by 2021-22, for the first time, more than half of the NHS frontline spending will be in our Community Health Service.

More equitable access to modern radiotherapy is one of the ambitions of our cancer strategy, Beating Cancer: Ambition and Action, published last year. Currently all Scottish radiotherapy departments have state-of-the-art linear accelerators and associated equipment capable of delivering the most up-to-date and technically complex treatments. £60 million has been invested in updating radiotherapy equipment in the four years to 2014-15. The cancer strategy pledges to invest further £50 million in radiotherapy equipment and relevant training and staff across NHS Scotland to meet projected demands over the next 10 to 15 years.

This information is not routinely collected.

The following number of practices were closed to new patient registrations in each NHS board:

Circumstances will arise where a practice experiences capacity issues and is unable to routinely accept new patients onto its list. We expect Health boards to work with practices as constructively and as flexibly as is appropriate to help manage the situation and ensure that all patients have access to GP services.

Hepatitis C test data is only held centrally for prisons within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Grampian, Lothian and Tayside board areas.

In the calendar year 2015 2,396 prisoners in these Board areas were tested for Hepatitis C. In the same year 137 individuals were diagnosed with Hepatitis C in a prison in those areas. Data for 2016 is not yet available.

It is the role of the Scottish Government to provide policies, frameworks and resources to NHS boards so they can deliver services that meet the needs of their local populations. Within this context, it is a matter for NHS boards to plan, budget for and deliver the services required to meet the assessed needs of their resident populations.