Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is pleased to note that The latest published statistics show that there are higher uptake rates for breast, bowel and cervical screening within health boards which have a higher proportion of rural or island populations. Nonetheless, we recognise the particular challenges people living in those communities may face in accessing preventative health services, and we are working hard to overcome these.

Initiatives supporting access to preventative health services in rural and island areas include:

• a dedicated financial support scheme to cover travel costs for eligible patients and their authorised escorts, which focuses on those on low incomes or living in the highlands and islands. In addition, Health Boards also have the discretion to reimburse patient travel expenses where it is viewed to be an extension of treatment costs and deemed to be clinically necessary. This allows flexibility within the schemes for Boards to provide support to those who need it but would not otherwise qualify.
• Funding for Scottish Ambulance Service mobile vaccination units. These are available to every Health Board across all vaccination programmes and can be used to reach those in rural areas.
• 21 mobile screening units deployed in the breast screening programme across Scotland to minimise travel for all patients.
• Targeted outreach through Detect Cancer Early roadshows, which visited communities right across Scotland, including those in rural areas, in March 2024 to reinforce key preventative messages.

In addition, the National Equity in Screening Strategy, which was published in June 2023, is designed to address inequalities and ensure equitable access for all eligible screening participants. The Scottish Government is also looking to improve our understanding of the experience of people with cancer living in rural and island communities. Examples include an independent evaluation of their access to cancer care services, and a research programme on rural healthcare funded by the Chief Scientist Office.

I wrote to the Economy and Fair Work Committee on 25 June 2024 to confirm that a market testing exercise for Glasgow Prestwick Airport was underway. Scottish Ministers’ longstanding position is that the airport should be returned to the private sector at the appropriate time and opportunity. This must be to an organisation with the commitment and capability to operate businesses directly relevant to GPA.

Any decision to sell GPA must represent value for money for taxpayers and be informed by what is right for the long-term success of the business and its contribution to the local and Scottish economy.

The process is ongoing and I will update Parliament when a significant development has been made.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-26921 on 29 April 2024. 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

Please find below, the Full Time Equivalent (FTE) number of social media managers currently employed within the Communications division and the associated cost.

It is for Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) to govern, plan and resource adult palliative care in their areas, using the delegated budgets under their control, to meet the needs of their local populations.

Evidence gathered to support the development of the draft palliative care strategy shows that, for people living and dying at home, general practitioners (GPs) and district nurses have important and valued roles providing ongoing relationships, care of the whole person and family, broad expertise and coordination of care. These relationships are particularly important in rural and island communities. The actions set out in the draft palliative care strategy seeks to support IJBs ensure equitable access to palliative care in their areas.

The Scottish Government provides the policies, frameworks and resources for high quality healthcare, and it is for each individual NHS Board to decide how best to utilise funding, to meet local health needs. Over the last five years, the number of Allied Health Professionals (AHP’s) across Scotland have increased by 17.8% including a 20.6% increase in Physiotherapists as at June 2024.

There is no definition of, and thus no data collected for, waiting times for community optometry services, whether urban or rural.

However, we are working closely with the three island Health Boards to resolve some local access issues.

The Scottish Government has not received correspondence with regards waiting times in Aberdeenshire.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on satisfaction rates on the provision of palliative care services across Scotland.

However, to inform the development of the draft strategy on palliative care, we carried out surveys mapping palliative care delivery across Scotland. These indicated that ways of working and reporting on general palliative care and specialist palliative care services varied by NHS Board areas.

Further to this, we also looked at research studies exploring lived experiences of palliative care, and we commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to gather views from people in Scotland with experience of palliative care or caring for someone who has received palliative care. This included gathering views from people in rural and island communities.

The outcomes of all of these pieces of work are available at www.gov.scot/publications/palliative-care-strategy-palliative-care-matters/

The Scottish Government works in partnership across Health and Social Care organisations to ensure a consistent strategic approach to improving the vital digital and data skills for continuing staff development and service transformation. The provision of specific training for managing and accessing digital medical records in accordance with the Health & Social Care Records Management Code Of Practice that can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/records-management-code-practice-health-social-care/is the responsibility for NHS Boards as employers.

It remains the ambition of the Scottish Government to deliver a National Low Vision Service. This would deliver a range of services to people with visual impairment including both the provision of assistive technology and support for the use of technology already openly available (e.g. applications available for download/use on a smartphone/tablet). The Scottish Government is unable to take this forward at the present time due to financial constraints.