Chamber and committees

We remain on track to increase the number of GPs working in Scotland by at least 800 by 2027. We have taken a number of actions, including increasing the number of medical places at universities, and taking steps to encourage medical graduates to choose general practice. To that end, between 2015-16 and 2021-22 the Scottish Government will have increased the annual intake of medical places in Scottish universities from 848 to 1117 (269 places, a 32% increase). The majority of these new places are focused on general practice.

By increasing the amount of undergraduate curriculum that is delivered in general practice to 25%. We are confident increased exposure to general practice will encourage more students to train as GPs. With an increase of 89 GPs in 2019/20 we are now confident we are starting to see the positive impact of these actions.

Number of GPs working in Scotland since 2017

Weekly information on the mode of outpatient clinical interactions by NHS Board is published by Public Health Scotland (PHS) as part of the Wider Impacts Dashboard .

Table one shows new and return outpatient face to face appointments by NHS Board of Treatment between 2 March 2020 to 27 December 2020

Our Detect Cancer Early (DCE) Programme is aimed at increasing early diagnosis rates of Scotland’s most common cancers while reducing health inequalities. DCE launched a new overarching campaign – Survivors - in September 2018 to reduce fear of cancer and empower people to act early if they notice any possible signs of cancer.

An interactive symptom-checker tool has been developed on DCE’s website (getcheckedearly.org) to help raise awareness of key symptoms, including those associated with leukaemia (fatigue, weight loss, recurrent infections). The NHS Recovery Plan, published 25 August 2021, commits a further £20 million investment to the DCE Programme, which will include additional public awareness campaigns.

A clinical refresh of the Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer ( Scottish referral guidelines for suspected cancer - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) )has been completed, with revised guidelines published in January 2019. The Guidelines support primary care clinicians in ensuring those with symptoms suspicious of cancer are put on the right pathway at the right time. The Scottish Government continues to support Cancer Research UK’s Clinical Engagement Team to raise awareness of symptoms and best referral practice for all cancer types across NHS Scotland.

Scotland’s first three Early Cancer Diagnostic Centres (ECDC) are live, providing primary care with a new referral pathway for patients with non-specific symptoms i.e. fatigue, nausea, weight loss – this can often include patients with Haematological cancers.

Officials meet with NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde’s (NHS GG&C) Cancer Team on a weekly basis to ensure every urgent suspicion of cancer (USC) patient is moving timeously through their pathway. These discussions are based on management information, not in the public domain.

The majority of cancer treatments have continued throughout the pandemic. Where changes have been made to a patient’s treatment plan, due to COVID, the decision is made jointly with the clinical team and patient.

NHS GG&C treated 97.1% of cancer patients within 31 days of a decision to treat being made in Q2 2021. Latest statistics are available via:

https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancer-waiting-times/cancer-waiting-times-1-april-to-30-june-2021/

The requested information is not centrally held. NHS Education for Scotland publish annual data on joiners/leavers, but this information is not available by reason or destination.

Information on joiners/leavers by staff group for each financial year can be found on the following link:

https://turasdata.nes.nhs.scot/media/tnvdmmwd/turnover_m2021_updated.xlsx

The requested information is not centrally held. NHS Education for Scotland publish annual data on joiners/leavers, but this information is not available by reason or destination.

Information on joiners/leavers by staff group for each financial year can be found on the following link:

https://turasdata.nes.nhs.scot/media/tnvdmmwd/turnover_m2021_updated.xlsx

The Scottish Government encourages essential workers, along with the wider adult population and secondary school-aged pupils, to participate in regular asymptomatic testing irrespective of their vaccination status.

The Scottish Government’s asymptomatic workplace testing programmes provide free test kits to a wide range of public, private and third-sector businesses and organisations. Different testing regimens are employed as appropriate to the setting. Most workplaces offering regular asymptomatic testing use twice-weekly testing with lateral flow devices. Weekly polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing is offered to specific cohorts of staff, including Scottish Prison Service staff and health and social care staff working with clinically vulnerable patients.

As of 12 October 2021, 36 projects have been awarded funding through the Green Jobs Fund (GJF). This amounts to £8,944,969 of funding across 18 different local authority areas. The total number of jobs to be created from this first allocation of funding is expected to be 517.8 FTE. A second GJF funding allocation round will take place later this year.

The following table shows the breakdown of current awards by local authority, detailing the amounts awarded, the number of awards made and the number of jobs expected to be created in each local authority as a result of the funding allocated.

Table 1, a copy of which has been placed in SPICE (bib 62727), highlights data from NHS Education Scotland and Scottish Funding Council showing both the recommended and actual intakes to pre-registration nursing and midwifery programmes, broken down by institution from 2007 to 2020. Figures for 2021 have not been published yet.

This government has seen an 87.7% increase in consultant oncologists and we’ve increased consultant radiologists by 57.4% (September 2006 – June 2021). We recognise the immense pressure our NHS workforce has been under in response to the pandemic and we are working to provide a sustainable workforce. The National Cancer Plan is backed by £114.5 million and has the potential to provide significant financial support to address cancer workforce shortages.

As part of the work of the National Cancer Recovery Group (NCRG), we are currently carrying out an exercise to identify workforce requirements to help inform wider planning discussions. This will look at roles specifically related to cancer.