Chamber and committees

A set of data tables for the most recent and historical hospital bed numbers for each board is available in the annual PHS publication, which was released on 28 September 2021, which be found at https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-annual/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-annual-annual-year-ending-31-march-2021/

Data is available from financial year 2011-12 to financial year 2020-21. Hospital beds data is presented in the Table 4 – beds data file, and the measure of interest is Average Available Staffed Beds for All Specialties.

A set of data tables for the most recent and historical hospital bed numbers for each board is available in the annual PHS publication, which was released on 28 September 2021, which be found at https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-annual/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-annual-annual-year-ending-31-march-2021/

Data is available from financial year 2011-12 to financial year 2020-21. Hospital beds data is presented in the Table 4 – beds data file, and the measure of interest is Average Available Staffed Beds for All Specialties.

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

The Transforming Cancer Care Programme (TCC), where the Scottish Government is working in partnership with Macmillan, aims to ensure that every cancer patient in Scotland has access to a specialist key support worker, who can provide emotional, financial and practical support to those who need it most.

This service will also benefit clinicians, by freeing up time that may have been spent providing this support, and means they will have more time to offer direct medical and clinical support to patients.

NHS Grampian, like all boards, continues to see an increasing number of eligible cancer referrals and our priority is to ensure these patients receive cancer diagnosis and treatments safely and based on their clinical urgency.

We’re investing £40m over 5 years to support cancer services and improve cancer waiting times, with a focus on clearing any long waits and on the most challenged cancer pathways including urology, colorectal and breast.

Data published by PHS on 29 March 2022 shows that following a decision to treat, patients in NHS Grampian wait on average six days to begin their first definitive treatment for cancer. This may include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy or other treatment.

As set out in Transport Scotland’s Rail Services Decarbonisation Action Plan, by 2035 Transport Scotland aims to have decarbonised the route to Stranraer and Girvan.

Decarbonisation of the line to Girvan and Stranraer forms a later phase of the rolling programme. Therefore it is at very early stage of development with a detailed implementation programme still to be developed.

The #LiveableNHSBursary campaign is focused on the situation faced by latter years medical students studying in England which is something we are unable to comment on. Scottish domiciled medical students are eligible for the standard student support package which is comprised of tuition fees and living cost support throughout all 5 or 6 years of their medical degree. Furthermore in February 2002 a £350 loan uplift for 2022-23 for higher education students was announced. This means that the most disadvantaged students can access £8,100 per year through bursary and loan and the Scottish Government remains committed that the total student support package reaches the equivalent of the Living Wage over the next three years.

In Scotland medical ACT is currently used to fund Travel and Subsistence for students in all regions and this is monitored in light of the changing economic climate and impact of locus of student placements in remote/rural settings.

In March 2022 we published, in partnership with CoSLA, the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care. The Strategy outlines our shared vision for the workforce, a sustainable, skilled workforce with attractive career choices where all are respected and valued for the work they do. This vision supports our tripartite ambition of Recovery, Growth and Transformation.

As part of this additional training places have been created in Gastroenterology through the Scottish Shape of Training Transition Group. One extra post was created in 2014, with a further 10 having been established in 2022. All additional places have filled successfully.

The Scottish Government is also investing £11 million over the next 5 years in new national and international recruitment campaigns. As part of that investment, a new national Centre for Workforce Supply has been established which will support the development and implementation of resource strategies and services across the system.

To ensure all Health Boards have sufficient capacity, planning guidance has been issued to support the production of new Three Year Workforce Plans, supported by local systems’ workforce data.

As part of this all Health Boards must consider local population health needs and projected service demand, using that information to assess current staffing capacity and any relevant staffing gaps in all specialties including gastroenterology.

At national level, we will use this intelligence to inform new staffing projections for health and social care, which will be published in the coming year as part of the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care.

If a patient chooses to purchase a test from a private provider, we recommend that they discuss the test’s suitability and their approach with their clinician. It would ultimately be the decision of their clinician whether to accept the result, based on the available evidence and their knowledge of the patient’s clinical history.

Specifically in relation to COVID-19 testing, as set out in our Test and Protect transition plan for any purpose which COVID-19 testing continues to be advised we will ensure that these tests remain available free of charge. This includes testing that is advised as part of a patient’s clinical care and to protect higher risk settings such as hospitals.

While the average weekly cost per person per week in each of these settings is not directly comparable, published data is available as follows;

The average weekly costs per person of (a) a hospital stay for inpatients across all specialities and all hospitals in 2019-20, the latest year for which data is available, can be found in table R105. Data files - Finance - Data & intelligence from PHS (isdscotland.org)

The average weekly costs per person of (b) residential care home provision in 2021 is contained in the 'funding and charges section' of Care home census for adults in Scotland Statistics for 2011 to 2021 Dashboard - Care home census for adults in Scotland - Statistics for 2011 to 2021 (full release) - Care home census for adults in Scotland - Publications - Public Health Scotland

The average weekly cost per person of (c) providing care at their own home is not held centrally.

We will respond fully to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee report, Health and Wellbeing of Children and Young People , in line with the protocol to respond to the Committee two months from the date of publication.