Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10433 on 20 September 2022. 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 Lyme disease vaccine candidate VLA15 was developed in Austria and, as such, is not directly supported by Scottish funding. The Scottish Government is however regarded as preferred customers for Valneva, and should the decision be taken to procure Lyme Disease vaccines from Valneva, the Scottish Government will receive preferential access and pricing. This is in recognition of the support provided to Valneva by Scotland.

Scottish Enterprise have supported Valneva Livingston with funding packages for the following vaccines, all of which have received grant support:

• Japanese Encephalitis
• Zika
• Chikungya
• Covid-19

My intention is to update Parliament with our Winter Resilience plans and publish our Winter Resilience Overview, covering both the NHS and Social Care, early next month, subject to discussions at Parliamentary Bureau. Caroline Lamb, CEO of NHS Scotland has also already written to NHS Boards and Integration Authorities regarding winter resilience plans at a national level and setting out clear expectations for local resilience and response.

Scottish Ministers remain fully committed to a health service that provides timely, quality care, is free at the point of contact and true to the founding principles of the NHS. The creation of a National Care Service will bring social care in to parity of esteem with healthcare and end the postcode lottery of care provision to ensure that everyone can get the care they need across the country.

Our publicly owned and operated NHS in Scotland makes very limited use of the independent sector for targeted services and to supplement capacity, where necessary. Over the last 10 years, use of the independent sector by NHS Scotland has consistently represented less than 1% of total frontline spend, with spend in 2020-21 being just 0.5% of the total frontline health budget. This compares to 6.8% and 0.8% for NHS England and NHS Wales, respectively. Further detail on spend with independent providers for NHS Scotland is available in Health Boards’ accounts which are published annually on each Health Board’s website.

Social Care services are commissioned by Local Authorities and the information requested would require to be requested from them.

Throughout the pandemic, NHS Boards have ensured that urgent, maternity and vital cancer services continue as usual.

Any arrangements for NHS patients to be treated at an Independent Sector hospital would need to be made between the patient and the NHS Board prior to the treatment being carried out.

The Scottish Government has had very constructive discussions with AstraZeneca on Evusheld ® for the preventative treatments for COVID-19. However, throughout the pandemic, a UK-wide approach to the procurement of therapeutics has been taken and has proven vital to allow the UK to have the buying power to secure significant numbers of therapeutics in a competitive global market. A UK-wide approach has also been taken on the development and implementation of clinical prescribing policies for COVID-19 therapeutics. This has ensured patients across the UK have had equal access to safe and effective medicines for COVID-19.

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) is a partner in a UK-wide multi-agency RAPID C-19 initiative, which is a collaborative partnership between the SMC and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Building on this work, the SMC is exploring the potential for collaboration with NICE on a single technology assessment (STA) of tixagevimab–cilgavimab (Evusheld ® ) for the prevention of COVID-19.

Over the last two and a half years, our NHS has suffered the biggest shock of its 74-year existence. Caring for large numbers of patients seriously unwell with COVID-19 has inevitably meant that planned care procedures have had to be delayed, and while we are working hard to recover and remobilise our NHS, this will not be done in a few weeks or even months. Throughout the pandemic, NHS Boards have ensured that urgent, maternity and vital cancer services continue as usual. Addressing the backlog of care, while continuing to meet the ongoing urgent health and care needs of the country, remains a priority for this Government.

We recognise the impact long waiting times can have on patients. That is why we have introduced a new set of ambitious targets for NHS Scotland to address the backlog of planned care. Key targets are to eliminate:

• Two-year waits for outpatients in most specialities by the end of August 2022
• 18-month waits for outpatients in most specialities by the end of December 2022
• One-year waits for outpatients in most specialities by the end of March 2023
• Two-year waits for inpatient / daycases in most specialities by the end of September 2022
• 18-month waits for inpatient / daycases in most specialities by the end of September 2023
• One-year waits for inpatient / daycases in most specialities by the end of September 2024

We are working with NHS Boards to maximise capacity to meet these targets and have increased the flexibility Health Boards and clinicians have to manage waiting lists, with a focus on eliminating long waits, as well as continuing to treat the most clinically urgent patients.

The latest Private Healthcare Information Network figures show Scotland has lower rates of self-pay admissions per head of population than England and Wales

Project Neptune was published on 8 September 2022 and can be accessed:

https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/strategic-framework-of-options-for-the-chfs-network-project-neptune/

I have a weekly portfolio meeting, usually held on a Monday, with officials and clinical advisers, including the Chief Medical Officer, during which any updates regarding the monkeypox outbreak in Scotland have been, and will continue to be, discussed.

As outlined in the answer to S6W-10089, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care attends regular meetings with his counterparts in the UK and other Devolved Administrations to ensure that the Scottish Government is represented in relation to public health incidents which require a coordinated 4 Nations response. The last meeting of the UK Health Ministers Forum was on 16 June 2022. The UK Health Ministers Forum has now been replaced by an Inter-Ministerial Group meeting which is expected to meet for the first time in mid-October.