Chamber and committees

Through NHS laboratories, our expectation is that test results should normally be communicated back within 24 hours, but some may take up to 48 hours. We are continuing to work with NHS National Services Scotland to secure reliable data on turnaround times to provide a baseline to report against on a weekly basis.

For testing carried out by the UK Government expanded testing sites the vast majority of test results are sent automatically within 48 hours, or 72 hours for home tests.

Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, the Scottish Government received expert health protection and public health advice from a range of scientific experts including the Chief Medical Officer, Public Health Scotland, the Scottish Health Protection Network, NERVTAG and the Advisory Committee of Dangerous Pathogens.

We will continue to be guided the best scientific advice and expertise in relation to all aspects of health protection and public health.

The Scottish Government is working with partners to ensure that all health and social care workers, including doctors, have the support they need when they need it, including access to specialist psychological services.

Scottish Government was first made aware on 3 March 2020 that there had been a case testing positive for COVID-19, relating to the Nike Conference held in Edinburgh on 27 February. This case was included in the daily total case figures reported to the public on 4 March.

An independent, multi-disciplinary, multi-agency group Incident Management Team (IMT) with responsibility for investigating and managing the Nike conference incident was established. The IMT provides a framework, response and resources to enable the NHS board and other statutory agencies to fulfil their remitsThe IMT can, if it judges that there is a beneficial public health rationale to do so, make the existence of an incidence public knowledge.Each incident is judged individually. On the Nike Conference incident, as all contacts had been identified and contacted the risk to the public was deemed by the IMT to be low.

Risk of deductive disclosure leading to a breach of patient confidentiality means that data about the number of people at the hotel or nearby who tested at that time cannot be released. However, any case that tested positive, whether related to this event or not, has always been included in our daily COVID-19 updates.

An independent, multi-disciplinary, multi-agency group Incident Management Team (IMT) with responsibility for investigating and managing the Nike conference incident was established. The IMT provides a framework, response and resources to enable the NHS board and other statutory agencies to fulfil their remits.

Under this framework, the Health Protection Teams would be using the Health Protection Scotland (HPS) guidance in place at the time, which recommended testing for symptomatic contacts.

The guidance published on the HPS website was developed by experts within HPS and based on advice used across the UK.

This information is available in the Scottish Health Service Costs (often referred to as the 'Costs Book'), published annually by Public Health Scotland (previously Information Services Division). Report R025 provides a cost per inpatient week for the 2018-19 total hospital running costs of each NHS Board and the R300 reports provide a breakdown for the main speciality groupings. This information is not held centrally for Integration Joint Board Areas.

Staffing matters are the responsibility of individual colleges and, whilst it is for the institutions themselves to make decisions on future staffing levels, I urge them to be sensitive to such negotiations during the coronavirus pandemic. Decisions on staffing may be based on the financial health of the institution or on the need to implement changes to the delivery of teaching and learning to reflect the changing needs of the local economy and industry skills demands.

We are aware that some colleges have continued to pursue voluntary severance schemes at this point in time and the Scottish Funding Council continues to work closely with the sector to ensure any actions taken are compliant with the Scottish Public Finance Manual and the Scottish Funding Council's Financial Memorandum. However, I am also conscious of the fact that several colleges have paused their voluntary severance scheme and I welcome this development.

Colleges take the mental health of their staff very seriously. Throughout the change process, West Lothian College have encouraged affected staff to take advantage of a wide range of mental health and wellbeing support available to them through the college.

These are exceptional times and we expect employers, unions and workers to agree appropriate arrangements that ensure that workers are treated fairly, in line with Fair Work principles.

On 4 May we published our strategy to help disrupt community transmission of the virus, "Test, Trace, Isolate, Support" (link here:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-test-trace-isolate-support/

This document sets out the Scottish approach to "test, trace and isolate, support" and the extensive work that is now underway to prepare for its implementation.

The Scottish Government did not commit to undertake 1.2 million COVID-19 tests in sentinel practices – 1.2 million is the maximum representative population that the network of 200 GP practices involved in testing covers.

To maximise access to COVID-19 testing post-lockdown, and in response to the implementation of the new Community Pathway, we continue to work with NHS Boards to operate a community testing programme for enhanced surveillance. This approach is based around triage from NHS 24 to community telephone hubs and community assessment centres, rather than through GP practices.

This will provide information on those people presenting with mild to moderate symptoms and widens our understanding of Covid-19 within the community.

The Scottish Government was not advised of the closure of Gartnavel testing centre. However, on inquiry we understand the situation at the Gartnavel centre is reviewed on a daily basis and it can be stood up quickly if the number of symptomatic health or social care staff requiring tests increases again. The testing staff have been moved into an additional mobile testing team as there are a number of staff without transport unable to attend the drive-thru centres. Symptomatic care home staff are still being tested through the staff testing programme either at the other sites or by the home testing teams.