Chamber and committees

Vaccination is the best way to keep you, your friends, family, and community safe and we encourage everyone to consider getting the vaccine. In the vast majority of cases a successful route to safe vaccination can be found.

If vaccination is not straightforward, support is available to help people achieve the benefits of protection from the Covid-19 vaccines. Local vaccination centre can help answer questions about the vaccine and can advise what arrangements may be put in place to enable safe vaccination. In the rare cases where that support does not lead to vaccination, the offer of an exemption will be a part of the process.

A person who is identified as clinically unable to safely receive the vaccine will receive a secure paper exemption certificate in the post.

These certificates are fully equivalent to the certificates provided for all other people who have been fully vaccinated and can be used for access to domestic venues and will also permit smoother inbound entry to the UK. The Scottish Government have published ‘ Vaccine certification scheme – information for business and event organisers ’ and a ‘ toolkit ’ which provides guidance and example certificates, so venues are fully aware that they should be accepting the certificate issued to medically exempt individuals for entry to their venue or event.

NHS health boards lead on the local delivery of the vaccination programme. Vaccination centres have frequently changed throughout the programme, with some facilities being repurposed, and drop-in clinics being made available as we have had to exercise flexibility.

As such, the Scottish Government do not hold the requested level of information.

Information regarding the number of vaccination centres operating in each health board area, and their opening hours can be found on NHS inform.

We will keep the scope of our certification scheme under review to ensure it remains necessary, proportionate, and targeted in order to continue helping to drive vaccination rates up as high as possible; and providing an additional layer of protection over the winter months as we seek to achieve the difficult task of keeping COVID under control while keeping our economy fully open.

Our decisions are taken, and reviewed on the latest data and clinical evidence. Our review process includes consideration of the impact assessments, such as the Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment .

Our certification scheme is limited to activities that are a higher risk and is an alternative to the potential closure of higher risk venues. We have made clear that certification will never be a requirement for access to public services.

We continue to monitor and assess the pandemic closely and carefully. The Scottish Government develops a range of epidemic scenarios to provide the best public health advice to Ministers. These are presented in the Modelling the Epidemic report published by Scottish Government. These models consider a range of influences on the epidemic, of which COP26 is one. The Scottish Government will continue to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the NHS in the next few weeks in terms of estimated number of infections, hospital bed demand, and ICU bed demand. The scenarios within the Modelling the Epidemic report account for the start of the COP26 conference beginning in Glasgow on 31 October.

Based on current results, we do not have any concerns about COVID rates among Blue Zone passholders. As of 13 November, the cumulative test positivity for Blue Zone passholders, based on lateral flow tests, was 0.08%.

The Scottish Government continues to explore all options for how it will respond to the evolving pandemic and we will not hesitate to strengthen the protective measures in place if it proves necessary to do so. Given the uncertainty and risk we face as winter progresses, it would not be responsible to rule anything out at this stage.

Our Health and Social Care Winter Overview published in October outlines a package of over £300 million of investment in NHS and care services this winter to help address these pressures. This is shaped by our four key principles: maximising capacity; supporting staff wellbeing; supporting effective system flow, and improving outcomes.

The Scottish Government COVID-19 Advisory Group has met 14 times since the start of 2021.

Meetings took place on the following dates:

• 7 January 2021
• 21 January 2021
• 28 January 2021
• 18 February 2021
• 4 March 2021
• 18 March 2021
• 1 April 2021
• 15 April 2021
• 13 May 2021
• 27 May 2021
• 10 June 2021
• 5 August 2021
• 9 September 2021
• 14 October 2021

Public Health Scotland have confirmed that a hot debrief is guidance and not mandatory. The Incident Management Team therefore did not completed a hot debrief relating to the COVID-19 outbreak at the Nike Conference. Public Health Scotland have, however, published the Incident Management Team Report relating to this event. Learning around Covid-19 is a continuous process and findings such as this report inform the wider response to the pandemic in Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03940 on 2 November 2021.

NHS Scotland already utilises an electronic prescription message between GP practices and community pharmacies which runs in parallel with paper prescriptions. However, the use of paper prescriptions is still a necessity at this stage as a legal requirement.

The Scottish Government has commissioned NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) to take forward a number of digital priorities in response to COVID. This national programme includes investing in development of a new ePrescribing and eDispensing pathway by enabling the use of advanced electronic signatures in primary care and addressing the need for an end-to-end digital solution that will support replacement of the paper prescription from all community settings with a digital solution. The programme recognises that electronic prescribing will help some vulnerable sections of society, but we must also ensure others are not disadvantaged and the solution adopted should address patient needs including digital exclusion. It is difficult to be precise on timescales at present but significant progress on the technical and process models continues at pace and the Scottish Government is committed to deliver a solution through this programme.

Our refreshed Digital Health and Care Strategy includes a clear approach on how we will empower the public to manage their health and wellbeing through digital means. This work will look to give greater access to things like health records and being able to manage prescriptions online.

In addition, patients who have a long-term condition can access the ‘Medicines: Care and Review Service’ at their local community pharmacy. It promotes a partnership approach between the pharmacist, the patient and their GP practice. Patients with stable long-term conditions can receive serial prescriptions for a duration of 24, 48 or 56 weeks which are dispensed in regular intervals by the pharmacy and remove the need to request regular repeat prescriptions.

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 have been clear and consistent that whilst we strongly encourage those eligible to receive the coronavirus vaccination to do so, the decision is one of personal choice, and we have no current plans to introduce mandatory vaccination, or to impose any penalties relating to this. It is for each employer to consider their own specific circumstances and make sure their approach is consistent with their own existing obligations and relevant legislation.

We will continue to work together and engage with care home providers, staff and health boards across Scotland, to further encourage acceptance of the coronavirus vaccine to protect staff and residents.