Chamber and committees

Table 1 provides information on total number of inpatient, daycase and outpatient hospital episodes where an emergency eye surgery procedure was recorded, at the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion by financial year from 2004-05. It is not possible to provide figures for 1999-2003, as prior to 2004 activity at the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion was recorded under the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh along with activity from other facilities on the Lauriston Place site.

Table 1: Number of emergency Eye procedures at the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion, 2004-05 to 2022-23

FSS intend to initiate stakeholder engagement during the 2024 – 25 business year, and will seek early opportunities to gather initial views on braille labelling from relevant business stakeholders where practical.

FSS officials meet with officials in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in Wales and Northern Ireland, lead departments for food labelling in the rest of the UK, on a bimonthly basis. FSS continues to highlight that braille labelling of food products is being considered by the Scottish Parliament Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee, and the importance being placed on this issue in Scotland. Development of any policy proposals would need to be considered on a four-nation basis under the UK Food Compositional Standards and Labelling Common Framework.

Table 1 provides information on total number of inpatient, daycase and outpatient hospital episodes where a cataract surgery procedure was recorded, at the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion by financial year from 2004-05. It is not possible to provide figures for 1999-2003, as prior to 2004 activity at the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion was recorded under the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh along with activity from other facilities on the Lauriston Place site.

Table 1: Number of Cataract eye surgery procedures at the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion, 2004-05 to 2022-23

The NHS Scotland Climate Emergency and Sustainability Strategy 2022-2026 contains a number of actions linked to resource use, including management and reduction of waste, in line with Scottish Targets. Walking aids are included within this, and a number of Boards have trialled and put systems in place to take-back, test and re-use items subject to warranty and liability.

Scottish Government’s guidance on the provision of equipment and adaptations states “partnerships and their equipment and adaptation service providers should ensure they maximise the potential benefits from recycling of all equipment”. In line with this guidance, we are currently engaging with Health Boards to gather a national picture of what action is being taken on this matter, and to ensure the timely provision of equipment to support people to live safely within their own home and community.

The Scottish Government is aware of the temporary reduction in beds at Kilbryde Hospice.

South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) has been clear that the temporary reduction of beds is due to clinical and operational reasons associated with current staffing challenges and are undertaking work to address this.

It is the responsibility of Integration Joint Boards to plan and commission adult palliative and end of life care services for their areas using the integrated budgets under their control, including workforce planning and allocating resources for staffing.

NHS Dumfries and Galloway have had no Scottish Dental Access Initiative funding awarded in the last two years.

The next meeting of the Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning is scheduled for the 18 April 2024.

STPR2 is a long term framework for transport infrastructure, to drive the capital investment decisions for our strategic transport system. It presents the Strategic Business Case for its recommendations, which each in turn will require their own development for delivery. As STPR2 recommends, the focus of Recommendation 40 is on improving the safety, resilience and reliability on the A77, in turn supporting placemaking opportunities, providing more resilient connections to the ports at Cairnryan.

This would include, but is not limited to, improving junctions, enhancing overtaking opportunities with wide single carriageway, two plus one road layout schemes or climbing lanes at appropriate locations where slow moving traffic leads to risky overtaking manoeuvres, and widening or realigning carriageways to alleviate ‘pinch points’ such as narrow structures or at stretches of older standard single carriageway.

Given that this is a long term investment programme, some elements will not commence immediately and are subject to suitable resources and funding being in place.

Our ongoing commitment to the A77 is demonstrated through our continued investment in the operation and maintenance of the trunk road network. An example of which is our ongoing work with communities in Ballantrae and Kirkoswald on the A77 to address concerns with speeding traffic, noise and lack of pedestrian crossing facilities.

More widely, major resurfacing schemes have recently completed on the A77 at Glen App and around Turnberry and there are plans for further work between Dutch House and Symington; South of Ballantrae and at Stinchar Bridge which will include replacement of the bridge parapets. This is line with the STPR2 Recommendation 32 which stresses the importance of renewing existing infrastructure in order to keep the network reliable and resilient for all road users.

Data is not held centrally specifically on intentional paracetamol overdose . However, the following table shows the most recent data on inpatient and day-case admissions to hospital as a result of intentional paracetamol poisoning, which includes overdose cases.