Chamber and committees

We recognise that all parents want to ensure their baby gets the safest care possible, and would expect that we organise care to ensure that this happens. The Best Start aims to keep mums and babies together as much as possible. If there is a high risk of the baby needing intensive care after birth then antenatal care will be planned with the input of a specialist maternity team, and with the expectation that the woman will be admitted to a maternity unit in a hospital with a NICU on site when it is time to give birth.

If a woman is in suspected extreme pre-term labour, she will be transferred by ambulance to a maternity unit in a hospital with a NICU on site, to deliver the baby there. If there is not sufficient time to transfer the woman before birth, the baby will be born in her nearest hospital and given immediate short-term intensive care on site to stabilise the baby, before being transferred to a NICU by the specialist neonatal transport service ScotSTAR when it is safe to do so.

The same level of care will also be provided to the mother who, once stable enough, will also be transferred to the maternity unit within the same hospital as her baby.

The vast majority of mothers in extreme preterm labour will be transferred before giving birth, and the normal destination for Lanarkshire mothers will be Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.

In the small number of cases where it is not possible to transfer mothers before they give birth, as has been established practice for many years, our specialist neonatal transfer service (ScotSTAR) will transfer those babies in specialist ambulances equipped to care for neonates.

The best available data about long COVID prevalence among children and young people comes from the Scottish Health Survey (SHeS) 2022 (respiratory chapter) , published in December 2023, which reported on people who had ever had long COVID. This data shows that 4% of children aged 0-15 were reported to have ever had long COVID. This is the lowest prevalence rate among all age groups shown in this survey. In January 2024, a breakdown will be published to distinguish between people who were currently experiencing, and had ever experienced, long COVID.

Our approach to planning and delivering health and care services needs to change to enable the step-change we need in our services. Our Policy Prospectus and Programme for Government is explicitly clear that reform is required and sets out initial actions we are taking.

Work is already underway to progress reforms to ensure long term sustainability, reduction of health inequalities, deliver services closer to home, further harness the benefits of digital technology, and the improvement of population health outcomes in Scotland. We engage frequently with health boards, the public, health and social care staff and other key stakeholders across a range of issues to develop our thinking.

The Deputy First Minister announced in her statement on the budget on 19th December that the Government will be taking forward a National Conversation on the future of the NHS. The Deputy First Minister set out the principles of public ownership of our NHS and ensuring services are available free at the point of need.

The Cabinet Secretary will set out in more detail in the new year how the Government will progress this work.

This will be a collaborative process across the health and social care system, alongside stakeholder and citizen engagement as a core principle. The Scottish Government will continue to build on engagement already in place with services, clinicians, professionals, service-users and citizens in 2024 to collectively build our long-term planning for health and social care in Scotland.

The recommendations for the new neonatal model of care are underpinned by strong evidence that population outcomes for the most premature and sickest babies are improved by delivery and care in units looking after a critical mass of these babies, with experienced staff, and with full support services.

The Best Start recommended that Scotland should move from the current model of eight Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) to a model of three units supported by the continuation of current NICUs redesignated as Local Neonatal Units (LNU’s).

As part of the next phase of the work Scottish Government have commissioned Consulting firm RSM-UK to undertake detailed modelling work to fully map the capacity requirements across the system to inform capacity building and implementation of the new model.

The Scottish Ambulance Service will be included as part of the modelling work. We expect that mothers in threatened extreme early labour, or those whose babies will need surgery, will be identified pre-birth and will birth in the maternity unit alongside the NICU. The Perinatal Network has been leading some work, and recently published guidance on transfer in these cases.

Neonatal cot capacity is managed on a network basis through a daily call attended by all Neonatal Units. The availability of beds is not solely down to the availability of neonatal cots, but also maternal beds and the availability of specialists to support both mother and baby. This ensures that for any woman or baby who requires immediate delivery, suitable arrangements are made.

The Options Appraisal Report , published on 25 July 2023 describes the process undertaken to determine the three final Neonatal Intensive Care Units. Annex D of the report outlines the cot availability for each Neonatal Unit.

Additional information can found on the hospital’s websites or requested directly.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-20618 on 19 September 2023. 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 .

As part of our work to develop a sustainable healthcare workforce, we continue to look for opportunities to increase levels of student attraction to healthcare professions. Careers in NHS Scotland are promoted on the NHS Education Scotland NHS careers website, designed to promote opportunities to school leavers, those in education and those looking to change careers. This site can be accessed at NHSScotland Careers .

The current route to becoming a podiatrist registered with HCPC is to attain a degree in podiatry and, as such, higher education institutions (HEIs) are autonomous bodies responsible for the attraction and recruitment of their own students. Each institution has their own advertising and recruitment strategy which will include visiting schools, attending careers fairs and promoting the range of opportunities via their social media channels. HEIs also recruit to their approved programmes against their own entry requirements and will encourage and support prospective students in how to achieve the required standards.

Additionally, the Allied Health Professions (AHP) Education and Workforce Policy Review examined workforce and education issues and recommendations included promotion of allied health professional careers and aligning strategies to market a career as an allied health professional. An advisory group has been established to oversee the effective implementation of these recommendations.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21151 on 19 September 2023. 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/questions-and-answers .

Table 1 - deaths from thrombosis-related conditions, 2000-2022.

Figures provided go back to 2000 and not 1999 as requested, as this is the period for which the National Records of Scotland have consistent data.