Chamber and committees

The Deputy National Clinical Director and Scottish Government officials met with the clinical leads for ovarian cancer in the West of Scotland Cancer Network on 3 November.

The ongoing improvement work, board management oversight, and any potential support required from the Scottish Government were discussed. I refer the member to the response to question S6W-23824 on 9 January 2024 for further detail.

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 .

Scottish Government values the NHS workforce and is committed to investing in Scotland’s NHS workforce. Official NHS Scotland workforce statistics show record high staffing levels across all professional groups as at September 2023, including Medical and Dental and Nursing and Midwifery staff.

On 23 November 2023 we announced an additional 153 training posts for junior doctors to be created across a wide range of medical specialties: the largest annual expansion on record. This brings the total number of extra training places created since 2014 to 880. These additional posts are supported by £42m of Scottish Government funding over the next four years and will be recruited to from 2024, with successful applicants taking up post in August 2024. We have also increased nursing student numbers every year for the last decade. In addition to this we are working closely with the RCN and the RCM as part of the Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce to develop alternative career pathways and working to widen access to nursing programmes.

Since autumn 2021 Scottish Government have invested £18m since autumn of 2021 to recruit 1,250 new registered nurses, midwives and allied health professionals from overseas by the end of this financial year. Over 1,000 staff have been successfully recruited to such posts so far. Scottish Government continues to encourage and support employers to prioritise wellbeing for their workforce and has launched a number of wellbeing resources. This includes the National Wellbeing Hub, the National Wellbeing Helpline and confidential mental health treatment through Workforce Specialist Service. We will continue to work with leaders across health, social care and social work as well as hearing directly from staff, to understand where the current pressures are, and what further actions can be taken to mitigate their impact on staff.

Scottish Government remains committed to reducing long waits, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic, to ensure all people receive the treatment they need as soon as possible. We’ve opened two National Treatment Centres this year, with two further centres opening in the near future. These Centres provide additional capacity for patients across Scotland and are an integral part of the wider waiting times improvement programme.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23817 on‎ 8 January 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

The Scottish Government is aware of instances of women who have faced significant delays in accessing ovarian cancer surgery in the west of Scotland. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of the surgery for ovarian cancer, scheduling can be challenging for health boards. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GGC) has advised that action is being taken to simplify scheduling of these cases and thus reduce delays.

Actions taken have included increasing dedicated theatre capacity and improving joint working across surgical teams. The health board is working to increase dedicated time for surgeons from the colorectal, urology, plastic and hepato-pancreatic biliary teams to operate jointly with gynaecology oncology. The surgical team is now bigger, with further training in hand. There has been an increase in weekly operating lists and planning continues to improve around increased access to other surgical specialties.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery is leading improvement work and pathway redesign via their clinically led specialty delivery group (SDG) for gynaecology. This includes in-depth peer review meetings involving all Boards in NHS Scotland to ensure gynaecology patients are on the right pathway at the right time, supporting improvements in waiting times and patient outcomes.

The Scottish Cancer Network will be establishing a new National Ovarian Cancer Clinical Network, which will work to ensure equity of access to treatment for all women with ovarian cancer in Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23817 on 8 January 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23817 on 8 January 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

We are working with NHS Boards to maximise current resources and productivity to reduce long waits, which have been exacerbated by the impacts of the global pandemic. We remain committed to reducing waiting times year on year across the NHS as set out in the Policy Prospectus .

We are working to implement the commitments of our Neurological Care and Support – National Framework for Action 2020-25 , to improve the provision of co-ordinated health and social care and support, develop sustainable workforce models and ensure high standards of person-centred care. Since October 2020, we have provided £2.6 million to fund innovative projects working to improve outcomes for people living with neurological conditions.

Whilst the Framework is not condition specific, it covers issues affecting people with all types of neurological conditions, including dystonia. The Scottish Government is working in partnership with NHS24 to update accessible public-facing information about dystonia , and other neurological conditions, for the NHS Inform website.

We recognise that uncertainty while waiting can have an impact on health and wellbeing. That is why we have launched a new Waiting Well Hub on NHS Inform to provide patients with information to support their health and wellbeing while waiting for health and social care services. This includes information on physical and mental health, as well as advice about practical issues like money worries.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery was commissioned by the Scottish Government to establish Specialty Delivery Groups in order to support, innovate and develop high quality services across Scotland. Significant progress has been made to release outpatient activity through redesign, with over 100,000 appointments released through Active Clinical Referral Triage (ACRT) and Patient-Initiated Review (PIR), well ahead of the target of 50,000 for 2023-24.

Personal devices owned and used by Cabinet Secretaries and Ministers do not have access to the Scottish Government’s corporate IT network or applications.

Ministers are briefed on best practice in respect of maintaining confidentiality of Scottish Government data when entering office or when a substantial change takes place.

Recently, Ministers have had dedicated briefings on Spear Phishing and the use of certain platforms. This has been done in partnership with the NCSC and Government Security Group.

Under section 14(1)(b) of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, education authorities have a statutory duty to make special arrangements for pupils of any age and stage of school education, who are unable to attend school due to illness, to continue receiving their education elsewhere than at an educational establishment.

The Scottish Government published guidance on the education of children unable to attend school due to ill health in June 2015. This guidance is available on our website through the following link: Education of children unable to attend school due to ill health: guidance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Where any pupil is expected to be absent from school for a prolonged period of time due to ill health, we would urge their parents or carers to speak with the school’s head teacher at the earliest opportunity to ask for alternative arrangements to be put in place for their child whilst they remain absent.

We also published guidance on supporting children and young people with healthcare needs in schools to enable schools to support pupils with health conditions which require management during the school day. This guidance is available on our website through the following link: Supporting children and young people with healthcare needs in schools: guidance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Where a pupil does have a health condition, whilst attending at school, staff in NHS boards, education authorities and schools should work together with the children and young people concerned, and their parents or carers and families to ensure appropriate measures to meet their individual healthcare needs are in place.

The Scottish Government is clear that stoma patients should expect an equitable level of care wherever they reside in Scotland, and the responses received from the recently concluded information gathering exercise on the provision of stoma care and stoma specialist nurse coverage across Scotland's 14 territorial health boards will be an important step in achieving that when it is considered by the Scottish Executive Nurse Directors (SEND) in early 2024.