Chamber and committees

Since independent hospice representatives met with Ministers in March 2023, SG officials have had a number of meetings with Health and Social Care Partnerships from April through to July to discuss the independent hospice sector’s calls for a national framework for hospice funding, and this engagement is continuing.

The final report is currently going through the publication process and the Scottish Government is confident that this, and any associated recommendations, will be published in August 2023.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring all people living in Scotland with neurological conditions, such as Essential Tremor, are able to access the best possible care, support and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care.

Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) was taken through the initial stages of the National Service Division’s National Specialist Services Committee assessment in 2018, which concluded there was insufficient evidence to support a formal national service at that time.

MRgFUS treatment is therefore currently provided on a trial basis in Scotland to help inform the evidence-base for the treatment and ensure that it is subject to rigorous clinical assessment to establish patient safety and efficacy before any decision on adopting it in the NHS. NHS Tayside have informed National Services Division that an application for national designation of the MRgFUS service in Dundee is expected to be submitted for 2024/25.

All decisions on a further referral to NHS England for any patient are the responsibility of the NHS Board where the patient resides. Specialist treatment outwith NHS Scotland is managed by the National Services Division as part of NHS National Services Scotland (NSS).

In the meantime, NSS is engaging with both clinicians in Dundee and colleagues in NHS England to determine how treatment might be made available more widely for eligible Scottish patients.

The Scottish Government has not received any interim reports from the Independent Review into Audiology.

However, given the serious nature of this issue the Scottish Government has been clear that action needs to be taken before the final report from the Independent Review is published. As such, the Scottish Government is already engaging with senior leadership in all Health Boards to seek assurances there are robust structures in place to deliver audiology services safely and effectively, and that Boards are sufficiently prepared to take forward any recommendations when they are published.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19380 on 11 July 2023. 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 Scottish Government is committed to ensuring all people living in Scotland with neurological conditions, such as Essential Tremor, are able to access the best possible care, support and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care

Subject to eligibility criteria, NHS Boards are responsible for providing travel assistance where travel is required for medical reasons. The Scottish Government provides the overall guidance to NHS Boards, and individual Boards are responsible for developing and applying their own policies taking account of local circumstances.

Decisions about the appropriateness of referral to pain specialist services, or medications for pain management, are made by the clinician in discussion with the patient, and with reference to their medical history. Patients may choose to take the offer of new pathway alternatives being offered by some NHS Boards rather than by being seen at a consultant led clinic. Where a patient chooses an alternative pathway, they are removed from the waiting list for the consultant led clinic.

The Scottish Government is committed to rapidly improving care and services for people with chronic pain by delivering the Actions in the Pain Management Service Delivery Framework Implementation Plan at pace. The Implementation Plan outlines actions to expand skills and knowledge on chronic pain across local services and scaling-up new ways of working to improve the consistency and resilience of local pain services. We are investing in national solutions such as improving how people access information and understand their care options, enhancing coordination of support between the NHS and the third-sector.

We are also continuing to invest in the Scottish National Residential Pain Management Programme which provides highly specialised care for those facing the most challenging impacts of chronic pain to the value of over £630,000 this year.

The Scottish Government engages with the pharmaceutical industry directly as well as via the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, and through Four Nations partners as part of UK-wide pandemic preparedness and resilience measures. This has ranged from long-standing arrangements to build and maintain stockpiles of medicines to address challenges from potential influenza pandemics to more recent measures to establish stockpiles of medicines and associated consumables for the response to COVID-19. Collaborative working across the UK also includes working in partnership with the pharmaceutical industry to develop onshore vaccine manufacturing capacity, with potential for pandemic deployment.

The Scottish Government welcomes the Our Union Street white paper and the range of ideas it captures.

The Scottish Government recognises that our cities and towns are a national asset and is pleased to see that many of the aims in the Our Union Street white paper align with aims of National Planning Framework 4.

The Scottish Government would encourage Our Union Street, as it progresses, to consider entering its achievements into the government’s new Scottish Planning Innovation Awards in the future.

The Bathing Water (Scotland) Regulations 2008 require at the end of the bathing water season each year that the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) assesses each bathing water on the basis of samples collected during the season, plus the preceding 3 bathing seasons, and classifies the bathing waters for the coming season. SEPA must advise Scottish Ministers of the classifications and SEPA also publishes the classification results on its website at https://www2.sepa.org.uk/bathingwaters/Classifications.aspx . SEPA is required to monitor water quality at each bathing water during the bathing season and the first water quality sample at each designated bathing waters must be taken shortly before the start of the season, usually, around 15 May and SEPA publishes the results on its website.

Public Health Scotland recently published guidance with information on the risks and the steps the public can take to wild swim as safely as possible, available at https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/wild-swimming-how-to-swim-safely-in-scotlands-outdoor-water/ .

Freshwater rivers and lochs that are not designated as bathing waters are managed for the purpose of protecting fish and wildlife. SEPA publishes its water quality classification for each water body online at https://www.sepa.org.uk/data-visualisation/water-classification-hub/ .

SEPA classifies 84% of Scotland’s rivers and lochs at good or better for water quality and 98% of classified bathing waters meet bathing water quality standards with more being rated excellent than ever before.