Chamber and committees

I had an introductory meeting with Alex Plant, Chief Executive of Scottish Water, on 6 June 2023 and have been in close contact with Scottish Water particularly on issues around water scarcity recently and will continue to do so.

We are working closely with affected Boards to ensure that unregistered patients will continue to be able to access emergency and urgent care via Public Dental Service clinics.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all people living in Scotland with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and have people at the centre of their care.

Clinical nurse specialists (CNS) make a valued contribution to delivering services and supporting patients and families who require specialist care. The Scottish Government has invested over £2.4 million annually in the Specialist Nursing and Care Fund since 2015, which continues to increase access to CNS nationally.

The Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care policy in Scotland; however, the statutory responsibility for delivering or commissioning services at a local level lies with local authorities, NHS Boards and integrated health and social care partnerships. Operational decisions, including whether there is a need for lymphocytic leukaemia specialist nurses, are therefore matters for those bodies.

However, within cancer services we have piloted 12 Single Point of Contact (SPoC) programmes. This approach will ensure patients with a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of cancer have dedicated person-centred support to discuss their specific circumstances.

We continue to work with key partners across Scotland to ensure that information, with the appropriate safeguards in place, is available to all staff when and where they need it. Regional Clinical Portals support NHS Boards to allow clinicians to access different pieces of information about an individual patient as a single electronic record including those patients from other NHS Boards if and when required.

The portal will scan the many clinical systems searching for records pertinent to the patient and assemble the results into a meaningful view on screen. The portal also allows a clinician with suitable access scrutinise the clinical information presented for a more detailed view, and to move into other systems without having to re-authenticate or reselect the patient.

Community Pharmacy gained access to the Emergency Care Summary (ECS) for all community pharmacists and registered technicians during COVID 19. It remains available in all NHS Boards, and is an effective tool to deliver enhanced and efficient patient care.

A total of £194,841 in private water supply grants has been awarded by North Ayrshire, Inverclyde, Renfrewshire, East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire Councils from financial years 2007-08 to 2022-23. A further £2,263,062 has been awarded by Argyll and Bute Council for the same period. However, it should be noted that the Argyll and Bute Council area goes beyond the West Scotland region. Totals by local authority are set out in the following table. The Scottish Government does not hold information regarding the breakdown of amounts awarded to (a) homes and (b) commercial premises.

All grant funding allocated from the drugs policy division is subject to Scottish Government’s robust grant management process, outlined in the Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM). The Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM) provides guidance on the proper handling and reporting of public funds.

The SPFM also provides guidance on appraisal and evaluation techniques and procedures. The Green Book, Appraisal and Evaluation in Central Government published by HM Treasury provides more detailed guidance on the principles, techniques and procedures applicable in relation to appraisal and evaluation.

The Scottish Government is aware of emerging access issues within NHS Dumfries and Galloway, noting that this is an area which has suffered disproportionately with dental workforce issues in the past – an issue has only been heightened by the significant loss of EU workforce as a result of Brexit.

While an overall assessment of the impact of local access issues has not been undertaken, as it is a matter for the NHS Board, Scottish Government is working closely with the recently appointed Board Dental Taskforce to help understand and mitigate against the drivers of access issues. This includes strategic planning on the design and implementation of more sustainable dental services across the Board area. While this work continues, unregistered patients will continue to be able to access emergency and urgent care via Public Dental Service clinics.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water I have asked them to respond. Their answer is:

The number of interns Scottish Water hired in each year since 2013 is set out in the table below. In 2020, the Covid 19 pandemic impacted Scottish Water’s ability to support internships and this continued to have an impact in 2021 and 2022.

The Scottish Government does not stipulate that private companies have to offset carbon emissions.

As Circularity Scotland is a private company, we therefore did not make any stipulation to them that they must offset any such emissions.

Scottish Water has recorded the following number of deaths since 2013 at the reservoirs it manages:

2013 – Mill Glen – 2 deaths

2014 – Torduff – 1 death

2018 – Glenburn – 1 death

Scottish Water takes a proactive role in reducing the risks around its assets, and is urging people to stay safe, behave responsibly and not take risks around watercourses such as reservoirs, rivers and lochs.

Guidance on wild swimming is now available to Public Health Scotland website and provides useful information - Wild swimming: how to swim safely in Scotland's outdoor water (publichealthscotland.scot) .