Chamber and committees

The previous International Travel Regulations were due to expire on 20 September 2021 but were instead revoked and replaced with new, consolidated regulations that came into force on that date. We have reviewed the border health measures closely over the last 28 days and have assessed that there continues to be a requirement for the regulations to remain in place to reduce the risk of imported transmission and safeguard public health in Scotland. The regulations continue to be an important and proportionate part of the Scottish Government response to managing the pandemic. As we have done throughout the pandemic, we will continue discussions with UK Government and the other devolved administrations and continue to seek to take a four-nations approach to future changes to regulations and the travel regime.

Information on the number of homeless people who have received a GP appointment is not held centrally by the Scottish Government as GP practices are responsible for their own patient appointment and consultation arrangements.

GP practices are independent contractors and therefore decisions relating to telephony are at their discretion. On top of practices’ core funding allocation, the Scottish Government is making an additional £600,000 funding available this year for the Health Boards to allocate to GP practices for the purpose of upgrading or replacing telephony systems.

Information on the current number of face to face appointments is not held centrally by the Scottish Government as GP practices are responsible for their own patient appointment and consultation arrangements. We are currently working with stakeholders to improve data collection.

Officials meet with NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde’s (NHS GG&C) Cancer Team on a weekly basis to ensure every urgent suspicion of cancer (USC) patient is moving timeously through their pathway. These discussions are based on management information, not in the public domain.

The majority of cancer treatments have continued throughout the pandemic. Where changes have been made to a patient’s treatment plan, due to COVID, the decision is made jointly with the clinical team and patient.

NHS GG&C treated 97.1% of cancer patients within 31 days of a decision to treat being made in Q2 2021. Latest statistics are available via:

https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancer-waiting-times/cancer-waiting-times-1-april-to-30-june-2021/

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03321 on
‎ 18 October 2021. 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 advises anyone who has experienced domestic abuse to report crimes committed against them. Domestic abuse is a heinous crime and we remain absolutely committed to working with justice partners to ensure that they have the most effective tools at their disposal to ensure that perpetrators receive a robust response and are held to account for their actions.

The Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 (the ‘Act’) came into effect in April 2019 and provides the police with additional powers to take action against those who abuse their partner or ex-partner. As highlighted in the publication, in 2020-21, 1,581 charges were reported under the Act, with 95 percent resulting in court proceedings being raised.

Lastly, as part of the Programme for Government, we will invest £100 million over the next three years to support frontline services so that women and children can safely access the support they need and to focus on prevention of violence against women and girls from school onwards.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03321 on
‎ 18 October 2021. 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

NHS National Procurement has confirmed that arrangements have been made to make Ronapreve available in Scottish Hospitals.

Commissioning guidance was issued to Health Boards on 17 September, and work is ongoing to ensure that Ronapreve can be administered as quickly as possible where clinically appropriate.

We remain on track to increase the number of GPs working in Scotland by at least 800 by 2027. We have taken a number of actions, including increasing the number of medical places at universities, and taking steps to encourage medical graduates to choose general practice. To that end, between 2015-16 and 2021-22 the Scottish Government will have increased the annual intake of medical places in Scottish universities from 848 to 1117 (269 places, a 32% increase). The majority of these new places are focused on general practice.

By increasing the amount of undergraduate curriculum that is delivered in general practice to 25%. We are confident increased exposure to general practice will encourage more students to train as GPs. With an increase of 89 GPs in 2019/20 we are now confident we are starting to see the positive impact of these actions.

Number of GPs working in Scotland since 2017