Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-12300 on 20 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 new GP contract which has now been agreed between the Scottish Government and the Scottish General Practitioners' committee (SGPC) is a critical part of our plans to transform primary care services in Scotland. GPs will have the opportunity to vote on the new contract at a special SLMC Conference in December.

The proposals include reducing GP workload through the expansion of the primary care multidisciplinary team and allowing GPs to focus on their role as expert medical generalists. This will give GPs a more fulfilling role, with more time to see and treat the patients that need them most.

There will be new investment in expanded teams of health professionals in practices, which may include pharmacists, nurses, physiotherapists, paramedics, community mental health workers and non-clinical support workers for example community links workers.

More detail on the primary care workforce will be provided in the National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan: Part 3 Primary Care in 2018.

The new GP contract can be accessed here - http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/11/1343

Midlothian health and Social Care partnership have recently completed a significant piece of work to review and redraw the Practice boundaries to better reflect existing (and potential) list size capacity and planned house building within Midlothian. These changes were developed and agreed by all Practices.

An overall programme plan was agreed with the Delivery Plan National Programme Board in August 2017, mapping the work currently underway with detail on specific actions, targets, timescales and key milestones. This included a programme plan and regular monitoring and reporting on activity as result of the Delivery Plan. Work on a set of success criteria for the Delivery Plan as a whole and an underpinning set of performance indicators is being finalised for the end of this year. It will be supplemented by the work underway to model the performance and financial impacts of the Delivery Plan as a whole, which is being commissioned.

Part 1 of the National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan published on 28 June 2017 made specific recommendations on strengthening available NHSScotland workforce data; The Plan commits to increasing training places for nurses and midwives by a further 1,600. That is 2,600 additional nursing and midwifery training places over this Parliament The Plan goes further and increases the number of medical training places by up to a further 100 over the lifetime of this Parliament.

On the need to respond more proactively to changing service and demographic demand, for example by using scenario planning; and on working with NHS Boards to reduce the overall use of agency staff through use of Regional and National Staff Banks.

These recommendations are being taken forward with NHS partners and stakeholders, with strategic oversight from the National Workforce Planning Group.

Integration Authorities' strategic commissioning plans set out how they intend to deliver care appropriate to people's needs in their localities, including any plans to shift provision of care from institutional to community settings. Strategic commissioning plans are accompanied by annual financial statements setting out spending intentions for the year to come. The main driver for hospital use is emergency admissions, of which many can be prevented by better services in the community. Using their budgets and through their strategic commissioning plans, Integration Authorities have control of the budgets across the unscheduled care pathway including commissioning responsibilities for three quarters of all emergency admissions, enabling them to redirect resources from acute to community-based provision, improving both the quality and sustainability of care.

Within our Health and Social Care Delivery Plan we aim to reduce occupied bed days by 10 percent (around 400,000 bed days) by reducing avoidable admissions, delays and inappropriate long stay delays in hospital.

The Scottish Government has funded NHS National Services Scotland Information Services Division to provide data intelligence and support for Integration Authorities to allow them to continuously monitor, evaluate and report progress locally. Integration Authorities are also required to publically report on progress against nationally agreed integration indicators in their annual performance reports.

Funding allocations for the Health and Sport portfolio and for NHS Boards for future financial years is a matter for the relevant spending review. The Scottish Government will publish its draft budget for 2018-19 on 14 December 2017.

We will develop a medium term financial framework by February 2018 to support national, regional and local financial planning for the next 5 years.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-12312 on 20 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.asp

The welfare of NHS staff is critically important, every health board is required to have policies in place and to comply with national policies on managing health at work, which includes activity to support staff wellbeing.

Scotland has led the UK in the development of nursing and midwifery workload and workforce planning tools. A Nation with Ambition – the Government’s Programme for Scotland 2017-18, published on 7 September 2017, published our commitment to introduce Safe Staffing legislation, enshrining our world leading workforce planning tools in law, commencing with the nursing and midwifery professions.

The Nursing 2030 Vision, launched by the Chief Nursing Officer earlier this year, sets a direction for nursing through to 2030. It recognises that when nurses are happy and valued, patient outcomes improve and services flourish. The Vision prioritises activity to support nurses’ health and wellbeing.