Chamber and committees

The requested information on what percentage of NHS staff have been (a) full- and (b) part-time in each year since 1999 is not centrally held. Information on how many NHS Scotland Staff currently in post, broken down by (a) full time and (b) part-time in each year since 2012 can be found in the following link:

NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

Regulation of the medical profession is reserved to the UK Parliament and the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

As at 1 st October 2021, there were 922 GP Practices. This data was published on 14 th December 2021 – ( GP Workforce and practice list sizes 2011 - 2021 - Publications - Public Health Scotland ).

The Scottish Government does not hold figures for how many GP Practices have closed. However, the slight decrease in practice numbers shown in the report is largely driven by practice mergers and a trend towards larger practices with more GPs serving a larger number of patients.

AposHealth for osteoarthritis of the knee is being reviewed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). The draft medical technologies guidance on AposHealth is currently out for consultation with an expected publication date of March 2023.

Whilst NICE medical technology guidance does not have official status in Scotland, the Scottish Government will await publication of the NICE guidance before deciding next steps. This could include commissioning the Scottish Health Technologies Group (SHTG) – who provide the equivalent of NICE medical technology assessments for Scotland – being asked to review and adapt guidance for NHS Scotland.

SHTG has a remit to provide evidence support and advise NHSScotland on the use of new and existing health technologies. However, it is ultimately a decision for individual NHS Boards to decide whether to offer this as part of their treatment options for patients or not.

This budget covers the purchase of pandemic influenza vaccine on behalf of NHS Scotland as part of the UK four Nation agreement. Funds that are allocated are based on need with the majority of spend occurring later in the financial year. Final confirmation of spend will be included as part of the Scottish Government provisional outturn.

The Scottish Government will continue to protect free tuition for Scottish-domiciled students undertaking under-graduate courses in addition to stepping in to address specific workforce challenges directly related to government workforce policy ambitions . At present there are no plans to extend bursaries to those studying on allied health professions’ courses outside of Paramedic Science.

The leadership of NHS Forth Valley has been unable to demonstrate the necessary governance, leadership and culture required to drive sustainable improvements in poor performance.

The Scottish Government has established an Assurance Board, chaired by Christine McLaughlin, co-Director of Population Health. The Assurance Board is supporting NHS Forth Valley in determining what steps are necessary to ensure the delivery of high quality governance, leadership and culture in, and in doing so is intended to support improvements in performance in out of hours, unscheduled care, mental health, and integration.

I have asked Professor Hazel Borland, former Nurse Director and interim Chief Executive of NHS Ayrshire & Arran, and Dr John Harden, Deputy National Clinical Director, to lead the senior level external support to the board. Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) will also provide tailored support to deliver on the actions they set out following recent inspections.

Trading Standards Scotland, when it takes possession of counterfeit and illegal goods, is subject to Section 34 of the Environment Protection Act 1990 which requires waste to be dealt with in line with the waste hierarchy. The Scottish Government has provided guidance on applying the waste hierarchy - https://www.gov.scot/publications/duty-care-code-practice/ .

I welcome the initiative shown by Falkirk Council and the local Trading Standards Scotland team in finding alternative destinations for seized counterfeit and illegal goods, to prevent them becoming waste. I would encourage others to follow this example.

Escalation addresses complex issues and an element of judgement will always be required. The timeline will be driven by the actions within NHS Forth Valley’s Improvement Plan and their associated timelines. My expectation was for the Improvement Plan to be developed and presented to the Assurance Board for scrutiny at its first meeting, with a focus on completing immediate actions by the end of the year.

The overall aim of escalation and the related package of scrutiny and intervention put in place is to support any NHS Board, including NHS Forth Valley, to deliver the required improvement and address the underlying issues effectively and sustainably so that they can be safely de-escalated as swiftly as possible.

The Assurance Board, which has been established to bring direct SG oversight of NHS Forth Valley’s escalation, will provide advice to the Director General about the future escalation status of NHS Forth Valley, including criteria for de-escalation.

NHS Forth Valley has been unable to demonstrate the necessary governance, leadership and culture required to drive sustainable improvements in poor performance.

The Scottish Government has established an Assurance Board, chaired by Christine McLaughlin, co-Director of Population Health. The Assurance Board is supporting NHS Forth Valley in determining what steps are necessary to ensure the delivery of high quality governance, leadership and culture in, and in doing so is intended to support improvements in performance in out of hours, unscheduled care, mental health, and integration.

The ongoing work to address the underlying issues impacting poor performance is even more crucial as NHS Forth Valley faces one of the toughest winter periods ever experienced.