Chamber and committees

Cancer remains a national priority, within the Scottish Government and across NHS Scotland, with urgent suspicion of cancer referrals continuing to be prioritised. NHS Grampian provided a 62 day performance improvement plan with an associated £973,764 funding from Scottish Government in 2023-24. Officials continue to work with NHS Grampian to ensure there is sustained focus locally to deliver these plans.

We are committed to reducing inpatient and day-case waiting lists by an estimated 100,000 patients over the next three years, backed by planned investment of an extra £100 million annually, subject to the annual Scottish Budget process, we will work closely with NHS boards and stakeholders on a number of key actions which will see patients treated as quickly as possible.

An initial investment of £30 million will now be funded as part of our on-going management of this and will target reductions to the national backlogs that built up throughout the pandemic, including orthopaedics treatments, diagnostics for cancer referrals and patients with the longest waits. This will enable NHS Scotland to maximise capacity, including theatre capacity, build greater resilience and deliver year-on-year reductions in the number of patients who have waited too long for treatment.

If an application for a building warrant is made which proposes the use of an external wall cladding system assessed in accordance with BR 135 when tested to BS 8414 as a means of compliance, then this information would be stated within the application. Local authority verifiers would consider the application on that basis.

In accordance with the Section 34 letter (Building standards - notification of application for building warrant: section 2.0 fire: letter to local authority verifiers - 31 October 2023) , local authority verifiers have to notify the Scottish Government’s Building Standards Division if any application is made that is supported by a BS 8414 test and BR 135 assessment report. To date, we have received no such notifications for any school building.

Land and Assets is one of the three main areas of focus for the Anchors workstream of the Place and Wellbeing Programme. All NHS Boards submitted Anchor Strategic Plans in October 2023 setting out how they will maximise their footprint as owners of land and assets, for the benefit of their local population. NHS Boards have also submitted baseline metrics on their anchor activity, including the proportion of successful assets transfers to date relative to the number received.

We will use this feedback, working with NHS Scotland and the community sector, to understand what further support or guidance we can put in place at a national level to enable more community organisations to use, lease or take on NHS assets for the benefit of local communities.

We will publish recommendations of the SBA Task and Finish Group to date by the end of July 2024.

Excessively long waits are, of course, unacceptable. We are working hard to drive down the longest waits, which have been exacerbated by the impacts of the global pandemic, to ensure all people receive the treatment they need as soon as possible.

The commitments set out in our £1bn NHS Recovery Plan support an increase in inpatient, day-case, and outpatient activity through the implementation of sustainable improvements and new models of care, and NHS Scotland’s Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) is working with Health 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.

CfSD programmes have developed strong clinically-led Specialty Delivery Groups (SDG), including one for General Surgery which is currently focused on Inguinal Hernia, Biliary Disease, and Emergency Laparoscopic and Laparotomy Scottish Audit (ELLSA) pathways.

SDGs promote multidisciplinary team working, and support local adoption of service improvement programmes and have supported several new and innovative pathway developments, many of which are now being successfully scaled up across Scotland, including Active Clinical Referral Triage (ACRT).

The NHS Golden Jubilee also continues to provide Health Boards, including NHS Lanarkshire, with capacity for key elective services, such as General Surgery, with patients treated on the basis of their clinical priority and length of wait.

Updated guidance on the use of mobile phone technologies in schools will be published in the coming weeks. The current guidance to education authorities and schools on this issue remains available from Guidance on Developing Policies to Promote the Safe and Responsible Use of Mobile Technology in Schools (www.gov.scot).

We will publish minutes of meetings to date of the SBA Task and Finish Group by the end of July 2024. For any future meetings of the group minutes will be published within 12 weeks after the meeting has concluded.

At present, no assessment has been made of the effectiveness of NHS weight management services in preventing and reversing type 2 diabetes. However, it is encouraging that increases in referrals to weight management services has been reported in the latest statistics.

Prior to 2019, there was a lack of standardised information collected by NHS Boards to enable tracking of provision of weight management services. Approved by the Scottish Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Framework Oversight Group, a core dataset was developed in collaboration with Scottish Government, Public Health Scotland (PHS) and NHS Boards. The core dataset ensures consistency and comparability in the data being collected.

Data on referrals to weight management and type 2 diabetes prevention services was first published by PHS in May 2021 and the latest data was published March 2024 . The publication is currently classed as Official Statistics in development. The core dataset and reporting provides health boards with insight and direction as to future planning of type 2 diabetes prevention and weight management services.

We will continue to improve data collection and monitoring to assess the impact of NHS weight management services in Scotland.

I can confirm that NHS Boards have received financial and policy support to implement the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019. This support has been ongoing since the Bill was enacted. Each NHS Board has been provided with funding for Workforce Leads (proportionate to the size of the Board) to support preparations for the commencement of the Act. This funding has been extended for an additional year to cover the financial year 2024-2025.

In addition to this, the Scottish Government has produced statutory guidance, in collaboration with Health Boards and other key stakeholders, which has offered clarity and better understanding of each duty within the Act. The Scottish Government has engaged extensively with Health Boards over the past two years through in-person and online events and quarterly reporting.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland has been commissioned by the Scottish Government to support NHS Boards, and its Healthcare Staffing Programme has provided support, including an advisor who works closely with each Board and hosting a network of meetings where Board representatives can come together and share learning.

NHS Lanarkshire is responsible for the delivery of primary care services in Lanarkshire.

The headcount of GPs in Scotland is now sitting consistently at over 5,000, with an increase of 271 additional GPs since 2017 towards our 800 target. Training new GPs is key to our approach, and this takes time. We have expanded GP Specialty Training, adding 35 places this academic year and a further 35 places next year. As a result there are currently just over 1,200 trainee GPs in Scotland.

GP training programmes in Scotland have been filling at a very high level since 2019, with 99% posts filled in 2022 and 100% filled in 2023. 2023 is the first year in which GPST has filled at 100% in Scotland, with all 343 posts having filled.

We also invest over £1m per annum in a range of recruitment and retention initiatives so that becoming a GP remains an attractive career choice.