Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is responsible for setting the strategic policy direction for NHS Scotland and its workforce. Operational matters, including the staffing of individual services, are the responsibility of each NHS Scotland Health Board.

At a local level, the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 places duties on Health Boards to ensure that at all times suitably qualified and competent individuals are working in such numbers as are appropriate for the health, wellbeing and safety of patients, the provision of high-quality care and the wellbeing of staff.

The Scottish Government works with a stakeholder group (which includes NHS Education for Scotland, the British Medical Association, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and various Health Board representatives including regional workforce planners) to undertake annual reviews of the number of specialty training places (for resident doctors) needed across all specialties in order to meet anticipated future service demand and consultant need.

Workforce statistics, including statistics on certain roles within ophthalmology services across NHS Scotland, can be found at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence.

We recognise long waits are unacceptable and I apologise to all patients waiting too long for treatment. We are determined do more and our Budget which will provide a record £21.7 billion for health and social care, with more than £110 million allocated to health boards to help tackle the longest waits for procedures and operations. This includes more than £12 million for ophthalmology.

Work is ongoing to support local surgical teams to increase efficiency and consequently the number of patients that can be treated across the cataract surgical pathway, in line with the Royal College of Ophthalmologists guidelines.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. More detailed information on cancellations and rescheduled appointments will be held locally by NHS boards.

I understand that the Royal College of Ophthalmologists has recently written to Stephen Kinnock MP, Minister of State for Care, calling for a review into the use and oversight of independent sector providers for NHS-funded cataract surgery in NHS England.

NHS Scotland continues to make best use of existing NHS resources and capacity. Our National Treatment Centres (NTC) programme provides additional protected elective capacity and infrastructure for ophthalmic activity and a number of Health Boards also have additional cataract slots at Golden Jubilee National Hospital.

While NHS Scotland makes limited use of the independent sector, in certain circumstances limited use of alternative providers, including independent sector providers, may be required in response to capacity constraints.

There is no centralised public record that provides the exact number of people buried in unmarked graves in Scotland. National Records Scotland (NRS) collects data on all deaths in Scotland, but it does not publish statistics specifically on unmarked graves.

National Records of Scotland (NRS) collects, preserves and produces information about Scotland's people and history, and makes it available to inform current and future generations. The majority of NRS records are free to access for all. Most records are original and can only be viewed in the NRS Historical Search Room.

No specific financial assistance is available to volunteers and researchers who wish to access the records of patients who died while being treated at former psychiatric hospitals.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) uses the national waiting times data mart to collect electronic patient records covering the waits that patients experience waiting for treatment as an inpatient or day case under the Treatment Time Guarantee. This data source can be used routinely to identify the specialty of treatment. However, although the records are designed to collect coded information on the procedure that is planned for the patient, this information is often either incomplete, lacking in essential detail and/or its accuracy cannot be assured. In addition, for patients who have completed their wait the procedures that was planned may not always reflect the procedure actually performed after they were admitted for treatment. The latter is not captured through the national data mart. Consequently, PHS is not currently able to report accurately on waiting times to this level of detail.

More detailed information on the procedures that is planned or undertaken for a patient will be held locally by NHS boards.

The role of the Scottish Government is to provide policies, frameworks and resources to NHS Boards in order that they can deliver services that meet the needs of their local population. NHS Boards are responsible for deciding the distribution of funding that they receive from the Scottish Government across the services they manage, including the funding of cataract activity.

This year, as part of our additional £110 million investment to help NHS Boards tackle the longest waits for procedures and operations, more than £12 million has been ring-fenced for ophthalmology.

The Scottish Government commissioned Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) is working with NHS Boards to ensure that they are able to continually identify new ways to increase capacity, and to respond to demand through service innovation and redesign.

In January 2022, Scottish Government commissioned CfSD to establish the Scottish National Cataract Short Life Working Group. This multi-professional group developed a 'Blueprint for Success' to deliver higher volume cataract surgery in operating theatres across Scotland; the aim being to deliver a minimum of 8 procedures per core 4-hour session or a minimum of one procedure every 30 minutes. The adoption of these minimum standards to deliver higher volume activity will reduce variation and waiting times for planned care across NHS Scotland.

The Blueprint for Success can be accessed here: https://www.nhscfsd.co.uk/media/5sofmknr/cataract-surgery-blueprint-2022.pdf

Furthermore, our additional investment of £110 million in 2025-26 has been targeted to specialty areas and NHS Boards where it can have the greatest impact against the longest waits, including for ophthalmology.

Finally, Our National Treatment Centres (NTC) programme provides additional protected elective capacity and infrastructure for ophthalmic activity. NTC capacity is a national resource and allocations are based on the latest Waiting Times management information available to Scottish Government at the time of decision. This approach ensures the NTCs are targeting the longest waiting patients that meet the clinical criteria for NTCs and allocations of activity have been determined on this basis.

The Scottish Government does not currently have any plans in place to remember former patients of historic asylums who were buried in unmarked graves. Details of any burial carried out in a burial ground by a burial authority are recorded in the statutory burial register so that the deceased are not forgotten.