Chamber and committees

Table 1 shows the total number of patients seen for first treatment following referral to CAMH Services, and the number of patients seen who waited more than 18 weeks between referral and first treatment appointment in CAMH Services for each year between January 2015 and up to the latest published data for quarter ending September 2021.

The Scottish Government national standard is that 90% of children and young people should start treatment within 18 weeks of referral.

Table 1: Total number of patients seen and waiting times from referral to treatment, NHS Scotland

The Scottish Government’s commitment to train 500 Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANPs) by 2021 was met by August 2021. As of September 2021, 536 nurses had completed their Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Nursing Practice (PG Dip ANP).

The flu vaccination and covid vaccination is a joint programme in Scotland, eligible citizens are offered both vaccinations at a single appointment. Staff can therefore not be delineated by vaccination type. Management information indicates that during the period 17 – 23 Nov c. 1,470 whole time equivalent (WTE) vaccinators were deployed by Health Boards (1 x WTE = 37.5 hours per week); staffing deployment on the programme is kept under active review Head count will be significantly higher as vaccinations staff work a variety of different working patterns, in line with local needs and clinic opening hours. This figure does not include administration and support staff which varies by both Health Board setting and clinic type.

Reporting of positive cases of Covid-19 and the request to isolate has been set out in public health guidance throughout the pandemic. There have been no changes to the public health guidance to self-isolate and book a PCR test if symptomatic, and to continue to self-isolate if the result is positive.

All alarms have a limited lifespan of around ten years due to deterioration of the sensors over time. Where alarms are expired, or no longer fit for purpose, it is recommended they are disposed of appropriately either by returning to the retailer or taken to a local authority household waste recycling centre.

The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) previously published advice on the Management of end-of-life smoke detectors, including advice for businesses and households on safe disposal and promoting the environmentally sound management of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) devices.

Information on the number of people diagnosed with malnutrition and associated conditions is not held centrally.

We continually keep our COVID-19 Status Certification scheme under review and consider a range of evidence, data, and information which is already published. Information such as the “ trends in daily data ”; the weekly report on the “ state of the epidemic ”, and the anticipated pressures on our public services. Following that consideration Ministers then report to parliament, detailing the outcome of their review every 3 weeks.

I refer the member to the answer to questions S6W-04212 and S6W-04213 on 25 November 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

I refer the member to the answer to questions S6W-03671 and S6W-03672 on 17 November 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The commitment to recruit 800 additional GPs is based on GP headcount and we remain on track to meet that commitment by 2027 as originally set out.

We have taken a number of actions to fulfil this commitment, including increasing the number of medical places at universities, and taking steps to encourage medical graduates to choose general practice. To that end, between 2015-16 and 2021-22 the Scottish Government will have increased the annual intake of medical places in Scottish universities from 848 to 1117 (269 places, a 32% increase). The majority of these new places are focused on general practice.

By increasing the amount of undergraduate curriculum that is delivered in general practice to 25%. We are confident increased exposure to general practice will encourage more students to train as GPs. With an increase of 89 GPs in 2019-20 we are now confident we are starting to see the positive impact of these actions.