Chamber and committees

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The Scottish Government continues to closely monitor all emerging evidence on the effectiveness of COVID-19 treatments and their clinical effectiveness. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is now assessing Paxlovid’s safety and effectiveness, and I cautiously welcome analysis of the final clinical trial results from Pfizer (which are yet to be published or verified) which show that Paxlovid cuts the risk of hospitalisation or death by approximately 89% in high risk, non-hospitalised adult patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19. If approved by the MHRA, this will represent another significant pharmaceutical option in our response to COVID-19.

On 20th October, the UK Government announced that 250,000 treatment courses of Paxlovid had been ordered, pending regulatory approval. On 22nd December, the UK Government announced that a further 2.5 million treatment courses had been ordered as part of efforts to reduce the impact of COVID-19 and the Omicron variant across the UK. If authorised by the MHRA, the intention is to initially deploy antivirals such as Paxlovid to individuals through a UK-wide national study, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The University of Oxford has been selected to lead the study . This will enable collection of additional data to address limitations in the company-sponsored trials, for example the effectiveness of the treatments in vaccinated patients, as participants in the company trials were unvaccinated.

Provisional results of the storm damage to forests caused by Storm Arwen were published on the 14 December 2021. Initial estimates are that around 4,000 hectares of woodland has been affected.

An online mapping tool has been developed to support forest owners assess the impacts and can be viewed here; Storm Arwen Windblow Mapping (arcgis.com) . The map will be updated by Forest Research on an on-going basis as more data becomes available. A version 2 update was made available on 17 December.

The satellite-based assessment will allow woodland owners, Forestry & Land Scotland and forestry agents managing large areas of forestry across the country to target their own local assessment using drones and site visits. The national data will also inform the strategic response of the forestry and timber sector facilitated by Scottish Forestry.

Many dental procedures involve the use of an aerosol which, for the safety of both patients and staff, needs to be done under strict Infection Prevention and Control guidelines. This means that NHS dental teams are unable to see the same numbers of patients as before the start of the pandemic.

From February 2022, we will bring in new and increased fees for dentists for a range of treatments, supporting them in their efforts to clear the backlog which has built up during the pandemic. We have already provided £50 million of additional financial support (on top of the budget for General Dental Services), plus supplied £30-£35 million of free PPE, to ensure NHS dental services emerge well-placed to care for the oral health of everyone in Scotland.

Funding provided by the Scottish Government (Chief Scientist Office) for research falls into three broad areas of activity, i.e. research studies, capacity building and supporting infrastructure.

The specific amounts provided by condition are set out below although it should be noted that research studies (funded by non-commercial and third sector organisations) would also have benefited from the provision of service support costs and other generic resources which are not routinely recorded by condition.

Research Grants

The Chief Scientist Office supports response mode grant committees and a small catalytic grants scheme (2016-19). The committees which comprise independent experts as well as public representatives consider applications across broad research remits to address health and care challenges in Scotland. Applications are subject to independent expert peer-review with funding recommendations made by the committees. It should be noted that (1) funding rounds were significantly impacted in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic which saw a significant research response and (2) for 2021 to date only one of the two funding rounds has been completed.

We have not made a direct assessment of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the detection of atrial fibrillation. However, we regularly assess statistics on Covid-19’s impact on cardiovascular services more widely to inform our work.

Public Health Scotland Statistics on COVID-19’s impact on the health care system including cardiovascular procedures can be found at:

https://scotland.shinyapps.io/phs-covid-wider-impact/

To address the wider impacts of the pandemic our NHS Recovery Plan, backed by over £1bn of investment, sets out our plans for health and care over the next five years. Through the plan we will take forward our aim of increasing NHS capacity by at least 10% as quickly as possible to address the backlog of care and meet the ongoing healthcare needs for people across the country.

I can confirm that the project remains on budget. There is no change to the estimated total project cost of £49.5m at Q4 2018 prices, of which the construction contract value is £18m, as reported in the Infrastructure Investment Plan updates.

Construction cost updates for the project are published on the Scottish Government website every 6 months via the Major Capital Projects update.

The Louisa Jordan was always intended to be a temporary facility to provide additional capacity at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the effectiveness of efforts to suppress the virus, hospitalisations were reduced, NHS capacity was maintained, and NHS Louisa Jordan did not have to be used as a Covid hospital. If NHS Louisa Jordan were reopened, it would mean the disruptive reassignment of NHS staff from other critical NHS sites, which are already at high capacity.

The Scottish Government has been working collaboratively with public and third sector partners to create and disseminate COVID-19-related information to asylum seekers and refugees in relevant languages and accessible formats. Given the fast-moving nature of coronavirus-related guidance, we took into consideration the lead time with translations and the danger of out-of-date messages being shared and distributed, and focused on working in partnership to create and distribute key coronavirus information to benefit the wider community.

1. The Scottish Government works closely with NHS 24 and Public Health Scotland to ensure key public health information on COVID-19 is available in 17 languages and accessible formats via the NHS Inform website, which is Scotland’s central repository for public health information.

2. In July 2021 Dari and Pashto translations were added to NHS Inform in response to the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme.

3. In addition to NHS Inform, the COVID helpline provides interpreter services to support engagement with people whose first language is not English.

4. COVID-19 National Door Drops that have been sent to all homes in Scotland for Covid-19, Test and Protect and COVID-19 Vaccines and Right Care Right Place were created in key languages for asylum seekers and refugees as identified by partners.

5. We have been working in partnership with NHS Scotland and Public Health Scotland to spread the message of available translations and formats. Organisations reached include: Scottish Refugee Council; BEMIS (the national umbrella body supporting the development of the Ethnic Minorities Voluntary Sector in Scotland); NHS Lothian Minority Ethnic Inclusion Service (MEHIS); British Red Cross; Inclusion Scotland; Scottish Independent Living Coalition (SILC); Progress in Dialogue; Article 12.

6. SG and PHS have engaged with various organisations including the Scottish Refugee Council to get feedback on how to maximise COVID-19 vaccine uptake with asylum seekers and refugees, and in response to identified needs, videos, a Statement of Facts sheet and informed consent information have been developed in relevant languages to provide information about issues identified as concerns across a range of population groups in Scotland.