Chamber and committees

I refer the member to question S5O-04709 answered in Parliament on 4 November 2020. The answer to this oral Parliamentary Questions can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=12916&i=116731

The following table provides the weekly figure for those people who have been advised to self-isolate by the Protect Scotland App. Please note that this does not include those advised by T&P staff to self-isolate as close contacts of index cases

In addition the table also provides a total number of downloads of the App since it was launched on 9 September 2020.

Details of the evidence that informed the development of Protect Scotland can be found at https://protect.scot/transparency . We continue to monitor the effectiveness of the app, in conjunction with Public Health Scotland, with the app functioning as intended. In addition, we are working closely with app project teams from other nations to share learning and to enable our app to work in other countries. This includes consideration of effectiveness measures, and the approach required around evaluation.

This information is not available. The app does not store personal data anywhere and is not made visible by the app to anyone, including the Scottish Government, not even NHS Scotland. Only completely anonymous data is stored in the app users mobile phone, and is only stored in a public registry if the app User decides to share his or her anonymous data. For more information, see https://protect.scot/how-we-use-your-data

While there is currently no established preventative treatment for COVID-19, Scotland is participating in UK-wide research to establish both preventative and supportive treatments. To date three supportive treatments, remdesivir, dexamethasone and hydrocortisone, have been identified. The Scottish Government will continue to work with NHS Lothian and other territorial health boards to plan for and deliver preventative and supportive treatments as these emerge.

Whilst recent news from Pfizer is very welcome, we do not yet have a date for the availability of a Covid-19 vaccine for use in Scotland.

The UK Vaccines Taskforce is procuring COVID-19 vaccines on a 4 nations basis and we expect that any doses that become available to the UK will be deployed on an equitable basis. We will prioritise to protect those considered to be most at risk, in line with the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations (JCVI) advice available. ‎

In Scotland we already deliver nearly two million doses of vaccine routinely every year so we have a comprehensive delivery infrastructure in place. We have been developing a national plan to vaccinate the over 18 population in phases that align with the JCVI advice. That national plan will be delivered with local NHS Boards.

To date the Drug Deaths Taskforce (DDTF) has allocated funding to a number of organisations, information on this can be found here - https://drugdeathstaskforce.scot/about-the-taskforce/funding/ .

This includes £1 million which was allocated through a call for research proposals to contribute to the evidence base on interventions to reduce drug-related deaths and overdose, the experience of people who are most at risk and the services which support them. In addition, a further £3 million was allocated to Scotland’s Alcohol and Drug Partnerships to allow them to address gaps in delivering the six evidence-based strategies for reducing drug related deaths set out by the DDTF.

Further work is ongoing through the Innovation and National Developments Funding Programme (a funding programme set up by the DDTF and administered on its behalf by the Corra Foundation) to allocate £5 million in 2020/21 to projects which would allow for testing of innovative or immediate responses to reduce drug related deaths. More information will be added to the DDTF website on this as allocations are made to successful applicants.

Further finding has also been allocated through the DDTF to the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) and to Police Scotland, both of which are progressing plans around naloxone. SAS are rolling out a national programme of naloxone distribution following non-fatal overdoses, while Police Scotland are developing a pilot around police carriage of naloxone. More information on both of these projects will be published in the next month.

Public Health Scotland have also received funding for specific posts which have been allocated to support the work of the DDTF and its sub-groups (specifically the Public Health Surveillance group, the Medication Assisted Treatment group and the Multiple Complex Needs group).

There is a wide range of data and research that analyse the impact of opioid substitution treatment on individuals. Much of this information shows that OST is an important treatment with a strong evidence base.

The use of OST as a treatment is in-line with the current ‘UK Guidelines on the Clinical Management of Drug Misuse and Dependence’ and the ‘Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs’ who state that methadone can be a very helpful part of treatment and recovery for heroin dependence. Its use was also reviewed by a Scottish Independent Group in 2013 who found that it remained an effective treatment and should remain as a significant element of the treatment options available.

The Drug Death Taskforce Medication Assisted Treatment sub-group is taking forward work that will define national standards for the consistent delivery of medication assisted treatment (which includes OST) in Scotland, and to help partners achieve it through a quality improvement approach. This work also involves establishing measures of success for people who use MAT.

The definition of an ageing cohort in relation to substance use, and in particular the identification of that ageing cohort starting at the age of 35, came from the report published by the Scottish Drugs Forum in June 2017 ( http://www.sdf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Working-group-report-OPDPs-in-2017.pdf ).

That report states that ‘The challenges of responding to needs of older people with a drug problem (OPDP), defined in this report as over the age of 35, are significant and will increase considerably over the coming years. Among people with drug problems, those aged over 35 will become the main client group in specialist services for the foreseeable future.’ It goes on to say ‘over half of those with drug problems in Scotland are now aged 35 years or over and face ageing much sooner than the general population in terms of both morbidity and life expectancy. Drug use and social deprivation have led to older drug users having health problems generally associated with people in the general population who are fifteen years older (Vogt, 2009)’.

There are no other areas of healthcare where a person is considered to be part of an ageing cohort at age 35 but the information above sets out why this age has been used in relation to substance use.

On completion the Drug and Alcohol Intervention Service (DAISy) tool will have taken three years and six months to be developed The business case for the DAISy was approved by the Scottish Government and Information Services Division (now Public Health Scotland) in May 2016. The DAISy tool will be completed and implemented from 1 st December 2020.

The tool will collect a range of data on people who access treatment and recovery services, including demographic data, trends in relation to drug and alcohol use as well as service performance and individual outcomes. This will enable local areas to better understand the needs of people who access their services as well as the impact these services and improve responses accordingly.

Information on DAISy is available on the Public Health Scotland website https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Drugs-and-Alcohol-Misuse/Drug-Alcohol-Information-System/