Case rates are uncertain and vary over time with different social mixing patterns. According to the Winter COVID-19 Infection Study, prevalence of COVID-19 in Scotland showed early signs of decreasing in the two weeks to 3 Jan.

Public Health Scotland continue to gather epidemiological information on seasonal respiratory infection activity in Scotland and publish the latest data in their National respiratory infection and COVID-19 statistics report.

The Scottish Government’s decision-making throughout all COVID-19 vaccination programmes has been guided by the expert clinical advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and at present they are not recommending any additional action this winter.

The winter vaccination programme began in September 2023 and all those eligible were invited forward prior to Christmas. The vast majority of vaccinations were completed before the festive break, but appointments are available until the end of the programme on 31 March 2024. So far, over 1.38 million COVID-19 vaccines have been administered, equating to 56.8% of the eligible population.

As the majority of the programme is now complete acceleration is not required, with a focus between now and the end of March on encouraging eligible people who to this point have chosen not to receive vaccination to come forward. PHS and the Health Boards have developed additional communications to support this. In addition the Chief Medical Officer, Chief Nursing Officer, and Chief Pharmaceutical Officer have been working to encourage uptake within the health and social care workforce, to support winter resilience across health and care services.

Medical Associate Professions (MAPs) are not new professions and have been practising across the UK for 20 years. They are an important and valued part of the NHS Scotland workforce.

Guidance regarding ways in which MAPs communicate and engage with patients and the wider public, was issued by the Scottish Government to all Health Boards via a Director’s Letter in 2016.

A programme of work jointly led by the Scottish Government and NHS Education for Scotland, and supported by a Programme Board consisting of partners from across the healthcare system will consider the most appropriate means of public engagement in relation to any future plans for this workforce.

In addition, as part of an ongoing programme of stakeholder engagement it is our intention to host a number of workshops throughout 2024, providing an opportunity for a wide range of key stakeholders to engage in detailed discussion regarding key elements of this work.

The Scottish Government does not currently directly fund training for physician associates or anaesthesia associates via the Health and Social Care Portfolio. Health Boards may choose to put in place local arrangements for staff to train as an anaesthesia associate through existing UK-based course provision, in line with their local workforce and operational plans.

We are working with NHS Education for Scotland to determine whether, and to what extent, we make investment in additional domestic training provision for medical associate professionals (MAPs), in order to strengthen future workforce supply in a way that is commensurate with our commitment to take a progressive and evidence-based approach to the expansion of MAP roles across NHS Scotland.

Up to £1 million was allocated in 2023 for prehabilitation to NHS boards via the Transforming Cancer Care programme. This has been distributed via the Regional Cancer Networks through regionally agreed prioritisation processes.

£80,000 was allocated to Maggie’s in 2023 to embed their pilot of universal prehabilitation at all eight Maggie’s Centres in Scotland, building on our previous investment to develop this programme of £270,000 in 2021.

Cancer remains a national priority for the NHS and Scottish Government which is why we published a ten year strategy in June 2023, focused on improving cancer survival and providing equitable access to treatment. The strategy and plan take a comprehensive approach to improving patient pathways in cancer from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care.

The evidence base for prehabilitation specifically for each of the less survivable cancers is currently limited. Work is underway to improve this, particularly with respect to upper gastrointestinal and lung cancers. Learnings from the prehabilitation currently being delivered under the Transforming Cancer Care Programme in association with our findings from the Single Point of Contact and Improving the Cancer Journey initiatives will provide opportunities to target areas of deprivation with early interventions. As such, efforts are being made to exploit these opportunities and progress screening, assessment and timely prehabilitation interventions across Scotland.

The evidence for prehabilitation across several areas of oncological care has grown and demonstrates that a multi-modal tired intervention can lead to better functional outcomes and improve other important outcomes associated with cancer treatment including quality of life.

Focus groups with people affected by cancer, evaluations of prehabilitation activities, and evidence collated by others working with people with lived experience of cancer, also tells us that prehabilitation is welcomed by the Scottish population and provides an opportunity for them to engage in their care.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-11669 on 24 October 2017. 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 .

Within the Scottish Government, funding of Health and Care Research comes under the remit of the Chief Scientist Office (CSO).

The CSO's Translational Clinical Studies (TCS) Committee and the Health Improvement, Protection and Services Research (HIPS) Committee each meet twice per year to consider funding applications. Details of the application process are published on the CSO website.

https://www.cso.scot.nhs.uk/grant-funding/response-mode-funding-schemes/

Research funding is not allocated to any particular condition. The TCS and HIPS committees receive applications from across the clinical spectrum. All applications go through a process of independent expert review to allow funding decisions to be made. Applications on brain tumours are welcomed and go through the independent review process outlined above.

a) A list of external consulting firms engaged to provide consultancy for research, co-design, engagement, and external support, and the cost of these contracts to date is provided in the following table.

These figures are as of 15 January and are provisional and subject to adjustment prior to and at year-end. Further costs may be incurred before the year-end.

Cancer prehabilitation is a complex, multi-modal intervention and personalised to suit individual need. It is not achieved through accessing a single service, nor is it likely to be delivered in a single setting. As such, no single mechanism or metric has been identified for measuring equity of access across Scotland, the UK or internationally. Instead proxy measured are used, such as numbers referred to a specific service/intervention and uptake and/or adherence.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery is leading improvement work that will define core outcome measures for cancer prehabilitation in Scotland, and where possible this will include activity data.