Chamber and committees

Funding of £18 billion is provided for health and social care in 2022-23.

As set out in the Emergency Budget Review (2 November), in common with the overall Scottish Budget, the Health and Social Care budget is facing unpreceded challenges as a result of inflation and the ongoing impacts of Covid and Brexit.

It has therefore been essential to review health and social care spending, with £400 million reprioritised and fully retained within the Portfolio, to ensure that it is directed where it is needed most, including supporting enhanced pay offers.

The requested information on how many whole time equivalent staff working for NHS 24 in the financial year (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20, (c) 2020-21 and (d) 2021-22, including a breakdown by (i) call handlers and (ii) nurse advisers is not centrally available.

Information on how many whole time equivalent staff working for NHS 24 since 2012 can be found in the following link: NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

Table 1 presents the latest published number of patients covered by the Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG) that were waiting within an inpatient or day case setting in Scotland at 30 June 2022, and the number waiting over two years (104 weeks), 2 years and six months (130 weeks), and 3 years (156 weeks) for an Orthopaedics procedure.

Table 1 - Number of patients waiting for an inpatient or day case admission for Orthopaedics by length of wait in NHSScotland, at 30 June 2022

The Emergency Budget Review (EBR) sets out in-year redistribution of funding within the Health and Social Care Portfolio. Future years funding will be set out in each year’s Scottish Budget, with the 2023-24 Budget to be published on 15 December 2022.

The requested information on how many whole time equivalent radiographers who were fully qualified to undertake MRI scans working in the NHS in the financial year (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20, (c) 2020-21, (d) 2021-22 and 2022-23 to date, broken down by NHS board is not centrally available.

Information on how many whole time equivalent Radiographers (Diagnosis and Therapy) working in the NHS since 2012, broken down by NHS Board can be found in the following link: NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

The most recent estimate for whole time equivalent of GPs can be found in the General Practice Workforce Survey 2019 , published by Public Health Scotland in October 2021. This estimated that there were 3,613 GP whole time equivalents (WTE) in Scotland in 2019. This is an increase from an estimated 3,520 WTE in 2017, with 8 sessions per week equating to one WTE.

The latest data on GP WTE is scheduled to be published by Public Health Scotland, they have pre-announced publication of this analysis report for 29 November.

Junior Doctors are a valuable part of the NHS Scotland workforce. The Scottish Government has implemented a 4.5% pay uplift this year which is in line with the independent DDRB recommendations.

The Scottish Government has been working with BMA and NHS Employers to take forward the Expert Working Group recommendation and key priorities within the BMA Wellbeing report. A Joint Statement on Junior Doctor Health and Wellbeing was agreed between all parties on 1 June 2022 and work is now underway to implement this important work.

The Scottish Government is not removing funding for Primary Care implementation plans. Reserves that have been built up over four years by HSCPs are now being used so that recurring funding for recruiting multi-disciplinary teams can be maintained. It is prudent to reinvest these public funds given that these reserves have been steadily accumulating over a number of years, especially at a time of considerable inflation. At the same time, we have increased the recurring funding for primary care improvement to £170m in 2022-23.

Reserves held by Integration Authorities, comprising Primary Care Improvement Fund (PCIF) funding from previous years, have been utilised in funding this year's PCIF allocation, resulting in a one-off benefit. The distribution of these reserves is set out in the following table:

As advised in the letter I wrote to you on 26 October 2022, funding will be made available to health boards to boost workforce and recruit up to 750 nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. Early indication from Boards suggest the breakdown will be 634 nurses, 17 midwives and 99 allied health professionals. These numbers may vary as pipelines are developed and dependant on Boards service requirements. We will continue to work closely with Boards to monitor progress and provide support where required. Health boards are currently building their pipelines for international staff and will negotiate start dates with candidates and agencies.

In addition, 250 band 4 non-registrant posts have been identified and we are working with Boards to support the recruitment and training of staff into these posts, which are across acute, primary care and mental health settings.

113 paramedics will be recruited as a result of the investment of £45 million by the Scottish Government, as outlined in the Winter Resilience Plan.