Chamber and committees

Information on staff to patient ratios in intensive care unit settings during COVID-19 outbreak is not centrally held by ISD or NES.

A joint statement on developing immediate critical care nursing capacity, produced by the four United Kingdom Chief Nursing Officers together with the NMC, critical care nursing organisations, professional bodies and trade unions was issued to Board Chief Executives and Nurse Directors on 25 March 2020. The statement can be found on the following link:

https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/other-publications/joint-statement-on-developing-immediate-critical-care-nursing-capacity.pdf

To provide practical guidance for the delivery of this increased capacity an annex to this statement was also issued but not published online. Scottish Government officials are currently using the guidance in the annex to undertake further modelling in relation to the staffing required for the intended critical care expansion in Scotland. This will be issued shortly.

According to the latest estimate around 690,000 people in Scotland are providing regular unpaid care to family members, friends, neighbours or others, for one or more hours a week, and on a range of incomes. The Coronavirus Carer’s Allowance Supplement will be paid automatically alongside the June Carer’s Allowance Supplement to unpaid carers living in Scotland and receiving Carer’s Allowance on the qualifying date of 13 April 2020. Carers who have applications for Carer’s Allowance backdated to include the qualifying date of 13 April 2020 will also be eligible.

By investing £19.2 million, the Scottish Government will ensure that around 83,000 unpaid carers will receive the payment. We are taking receipt of Carer’s Allowance as a proxy for those carers who have the most intensive caring roles and who have some of the lowest incomes. The majority of Carer’s Allowance recipients will not benefit from the UK Government’s increase to Universal Credit.

We considered a range of mechanisms to provide additional support for unpaid carers. An additional payment of Carer’s Allowance Supplement was the only feasible option to deliver extra money to carers quickly. Creating a brand new benefit for carers or extending eligibility for Carer’s Allowance Supplement would take several months as a minimum. It would require significant resources from Social Security Scotland, and Social Security staff within Scottish Government, to develop new processes and build new systems. It would also need to be supported by the Department for Work and Pensions. The Department for Work and Pensions and Social Security Scotland are prioritising frontline delivery of existing benefits to support people on low incomes at this time. Adding an additional benefit would place strain on these operations when they are needed most and we could not guarantee support would be available from the Department of Work and Pensions when we needed it.

This information is not held centrally. It may be available on request from individual health boards.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, NHS Boards are prioritising referrals to mental health services in line with local continuity plans. The Scottish Government does not hold data centrally regarding (a) how many and (b) what proportion of referrals to mental health services during the COVID-19 pandemic have been identified as needing prioritised assessment.

Waiting times data on CAMHS and psychological therapies is published by Public Health Scotland each quarter and the September 2020 publication will report on April to June referrals.

From the outset of this pandemic the Scottish Government has endeavoured to provide support across all sectors of our economy, and to ensure that it is distributed in the most equitable way possible whilst addressing some of the specific sectoral and geographical issues in Scotland’s macro economy.

The Scottish Government is providing additional emergency funding to the NHS General Dental Services budget to support NHS dental practices and practitioners. The funding will provide additional support to dental practices for the temporary loss of patient contributions.

Dentists in Scotland are independent contractors who may provide both NHS and private dental services. Depending on the circumstances dental practices may be eligible to apply for support measures such as furloughing staff through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme or accessing a Business Support Grant through their local authority.

In addition to grant funding the Coronavirus Bounce Back Loan scheme offers eligible small and medium-sized businesses with loans of between £2,000 and £50,000. The loans are backed by the UK Government and there are no fees, interest charges or repayments due for the first 12 months, with loan terms of up to 6 years.

Another avenue of support is the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), which aims to support small and medium sized businesses, including limited companies, to access finance of up to £5 million for up to 6 years. Applications are made through approved commercial lenders and backed by the UK Government’s British Business Bank.

Some businesses do not qualify for any government schemes which is why we committed a further £185 million of additional grant support for small and medium sized businesses and the newly self-employed.

The range of business supports is kept under review and up to date information is available online at findbusinesssupport.gov.scot.

The Scottish Government does not hold data centrally on how many new referrals to mental health services have been received by each NHS board in each month since March 2020. Waiting times data on CAMHS and psychological therapies is published by Public Health Scotland each quarter and the September 2020 publication will report on April to June referrals.

Regarding analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health referrals, I refer the member to the answer to question S5W- 28194 on 30 April 2020. 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 .

NHS Scotland does not use the term ‘dormitory ward’ for the classification of hospital wards, nor do we publish data at individual ward level of each hospital. However, the Information Services Division (ISD) does publish a list of the total number of hospitals in NHS Scotland (over 270) and it does provide a more detailed analysis of the number of beds in use.

The list of hospitals can be accessed here: https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Hospital-Care/Hospitals/ .

Whereas the bed level data is published here: https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Hospital-Care/Beds/ .

The remit of the Care Home Rapid Action Group is to bring together representatives from across the care home system to monitor data on developments in the sector, enabling a swift reaction to any developing issues. The Group meets twice a week, once in plenary form, with a sub-group meeting separately to discuss data.

Specific objectives of the Group are to:

• enhance existing collaborative working across industry leaders;
• identify issues for urgent resolution;
• request and analyse information and data on a range of metrics; and
• identify issues for urgent resolution, making proposals to Scottish Government and the care sector leadership for other national level actions

The Group will not give clinical advice or substitute for the decision making powers of statutory and other bodies, national or local. Instead, the discussion focuses around key developments in the care home sector, and relevant national actions. Membership is constantly being reviewed to ensure fair representation from across the sector and currently includes the following organisations:

1. BMA Scotland

2. Care Inspectorate

3. Chief Executives Group

4. Chief Officers Group

5. COSLA

6. Mental Welfare Commission

7. NHS Scotland Health Boards

8. Public Health Scotland

9. RCGP Scotland

10. RCN Scotland

11. Scottish Care

12. Scottish Directors of Public Health

13. Scottish Social Services Council

14. SOLACE