Chamber and committees

This is an operational matter for ScotRail, its officials however inform us that they are looking for some short term solutions to improve the temperatures on these trains.

The Member may wish to note that the reason for the low temperatures on the early services in the West Highland line is not a faulty heating system, but the time it takes for the train diesel engines to heat up. It would not be appropriate to replace the heating system which is not faulty.

In the longer term, ScotRail’s diesel rolling stock will be replaced by the greener trains as set out in the Scottish Government’s Decarbonisation Action Plan.

I have greatly valued discussions with the OECD to date and my next meeting with the OECD is scheduled for Wednesday 21 February.

The Scottish Government has regular meetings on a wide range of issues related to General Practitioners (GPs) with the British Medical (BMA) Association and the Scottish Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP Scotland) as representative bodies of GPs.

In June 2023 the Scottish Government convened a working group of key stakeholders including the BMA, RCGP and the Rural General Practitioner Association of Scotland, to make recommendations to improve the retention of GPs in all regions of Scotland, including rural areas. An implementation plan based on these recommendations will be published in Spring this year.

The Scottish Government is also a standing member of the RCGP (Scotland) Recruitment and Retention Advisory Group which meets regularly. In addition, the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care launched in October 2023 and is designed to improve primary care and community services and support the improvement and retention of a more highly skilled rural health workforce.

The Draft Scottish Budget 2024-25 was published on 19 Dec 2023.

The Bill is currently at ‘Stage 2 – Changes to Detail’ with any amendments to be considered at a meeting on 20 February 2024.

Once moved to ‘Stage 3 – Final amendments and vote’ a further vote will confirm that the Bill will become an Act before April 2024.

Reports that NHS Ayrshire and Arran will remove ICU beds from University Hospital Ayr and relocate them to Crosshouse Hospital, Kilmarnock, citing significant workforce gaps was not raised during either the biannual performance review in September 2023 or the Centre for Workforce Supply (CWS) at NHS Education for Scotland (NES) medical insights meeting in October 2023.

This information is not collected centrally by Scottish Government, Health boards would have to be contacted to obtain the latest dates of surgeries carried out.

I meet with a representative of ALACHO on a quarterly basis at Homelessness Prevention and Strategy Group (HPSG) and at Housing to 2040 Strategic Board meetings. The dates of these meetings can be found here: Homelessness Prevention and Strategy Group - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) and Housing to 2040: Strategic Board - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . I also met with an ALACHO representative on 20 December to discuss the draft Scottish Budget 2024-25 and with representatives of ALACHO and the Chartered Institute for Housing on 14 December to discuss their letter to me on pressures on the housing and homelessness system.

Following the deep dives agreed by HPSG, four task and finish groups were established from June 2022 onwards, which met regularly (between every four to eight weeks). Scottish Government officials were represented on these groups, one of which (the Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group) was co-chaired by a representative of ALACHO.

A representative of ALACHO chairs the rapid rehousing transition plan (RRTP) sub-group, attended by Scottish Government officials and, since 2021, has met with the Scottish Government on other strategic homelessness related issues, such as the Domestic Abuse Implementation and Monitoring Group, the Sustainable Housing on Release for Everyone Group and the Short Term Housing Supply Group. Finally, Scottish Government officials have met with ALACHO regularly in 2023 (every two to three months) to hold discussions on topics including local connection, RRTP funding, the proposed new homelessness prevention duties and the homelessness statistical data review.

The Scottish Government is continuing to provide a range of recruitment support, training and development activity to assist Health Boards in securing an appropriate mix of experienced and newly qualified staff for their National Treatment Centres (NTCs). As at 30 September 2023, close to 600 people were employed in an NTC, of which around 32% were undertaking their first role in NHS Scotland.

We keep under active review the total number of staff that we will ultimately need to recruit to our National Treatment Centres and to support the overall ambition to increase planned care activity and reduce waiting times, as set out in the NHS Recovery Plan.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government the member may wish to contact NHS Boards directly for information.

Public Health Scotland does not hold procedure level information only the speciality which in this case would be Urology.

PHS continues to work in collaboration with the Scottish Government, NHS Boards and key stakeholders to improve waiting times information. Statistics relating to the waits patients experience for Inpatient or Day Case treatment at specialty level are published up to 20 September 2023 in the link below.

Stage of treatment waiting times - Inpatients, day cases and new outpatients quarter ending 30 September 2023 - NHS waiting times - stage of treatment - Publications - Public Health Scotland