Chamber and committees

Each year since 2010-11, and as demonstrated through the Budget publications, the Scottish Government has delivered its commitment to pass on frontline health consequentials to the Health Portfolio. This refers to resource consequentials arising from increases in funding allocated by HM Treasury to the Department of Health and Social Care.

As the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy has made clear in Parliament, there are some areas of required spend where Covid consequentials have fallen short of expectation. In addition, there are some timing differences between spend in England and equivalent spend in Scotland .

In this context, the Scottish Government has taken steps to align funding from the UK Government with actual spending profiles in Scotland. The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy highlighted in her letter to the convenor of the Finance and Public Administration Committee, Covid 19 Financial support Scottish Government update | Scottish Parliament Website , that the Scottish Government has required to repurpose some health consequentials to specifically support wider public health measures. Further detail will be provided in the Spring Budget Revision.

Since May 2020, the Scottish Government has invested over £48 million in our Connecting Scotland programme, which provides people on low incomes with a device, connection with unlimited data for two years, as well as training and support. Since programme launch 60,000 digitally excluded people in total have been brought online. We are now working to scope out an extension to the programme to reach 300,000 people by the end of this Parliament.

The programme is part of our wider package of support to help everyone in Scotland benefit fully from the advantages of the digital world – from broadband connectivity to digital skills training and support for schools and business.

For more detail on data relating to echocardiograms, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05550 on 21 January 2022. 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

Information on outpatient referrals can be found here ( Waiting times - Data & intelligence from PHS (isdscotland.org) . Waiting times information is not broken down by diagnosis code.

In April 2021, we commissioned Public Health Scotland to develop the Scottish Cardiac Audit Programme, this includes the collection of data on Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implant, and Adult Cardiac Surgery in Scotland, both of which are relevant to the management and treatment of heart valve disease.

Further development of this audit programme and decisions around any future data to be collected will be undertaken in collaboration with clinicians and people with lived experience of heart disease in Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05487 on 21 January 2022. 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

All decisions made in the development of measures under the Covid-19 emergency powers have included careful assessment of the necessity and potential impacts of the powers and their compatibility with the Convention rights set out in the Human Rights Act 1998.

Appropriate impact assessments are carried out as part of this process and are reported to the Scottish Parliament.

Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) treatment is available in Scotland for those who would clinically benefit from it.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05641 on 25 January 2022. 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 information requested on how many people have been treated using hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy is not centrally held.

34 people were referred to England in 2017-18, 28 in 2018-19, 25 in 2019-20, 20 in 2020-21 and 13 people so far in 2021-22.

As the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, I am responsible for audiology services.

There are multiple directorates in the Scottish Government with an interest in the delivery of audiology services in Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05839 on 21 January 2022. 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