The Scottish Government continues to work with NHS National Education for Scotland (NES) and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in developing a joint programme to encourage more students, and not just school leavers, to consider careers in pharmacy, including ensuring the output reaches deprived and remote and rural communities.

In addition, both Schools of Pharmacy work towards the widening access targets set by the Commission on Widening Access for universities to drive forward the delivery of equal access in Scotland.

There are also wider initiatives such as The Scottish Wider Access Programme (SWAP). The partnership develops access programmes for adults returning to education, and targets adults who reside in the most disadvantaged areas of Scotland and particularly those who have no, few or out of date qualifications. This can help support people with few suitable qualifications to progress to degree level Pharmacy studies.

As you are aware, our NHS is currently facing the most difficult circumstances in its history due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This is exacerbated at present due to the potential risk posed by the Omicron variant to our healthcare system. This means Health Boards are having to make very difficult decisions about prioritising care, and I know this has an impact on everyone who is waiting for support for their health at this time.

We recognise that this includes people experiencing chronic pain, and that is why we are providing funding to enhance the capacity of pain management care through the Chronic Pain Winter Support Fund. We will shortly announce the outcome of this funding call. The projects we fund will boost the support available for people with chronic pain at the national and local level to help them maintain their health and wellbeing over the months ahead.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05035 on 3 December 2021. 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 Scottish Government has enough testing stock to meet demand into next year and we are working with the UK Government on procuring additional stocks.

Officials across the Scottish Government are working with the bus sector to facilitate solutions to workforce issues through the Labour and Skills Shortages Action Plan, and connecting Local Employability Partnerships who are aware of opportunities in their areas with bus service operators (through the Confederation of Passenger Transport). However, we have no plans to introduce an apprenticeship scheme for bus drivers.

There are approximately 240 students each year who graduate from the two Schools of Pharmacy in Scotland. There has been an increase in the overall numbers of students studying pharmacy with more Scottish domiciled students undertaking the course. The two Schools of Pharmacy in Scotland are encouraging applicants from parts of Scotland where there are gaps in the pharmacy workforce and working with schools to promote pharmacy as a career.

Since 2018, the number of NHS pre-registration pharmacists places funded nationally has increased from 170 in 2018 up to 231 in 2020-21. In 2021-22, funding of £6,096,489 was provided to NHS Education in Scotland (NES) for the Pre-registration Pharmacy Scheme, for 231 places. By 2024-25 this will have increased by a further 89 places to bring the total to an additional 120 pharmacist trainees over 5 years staying in Scotland to complete their pre-registration training.

In order to meet future workforce demands, a five year integrated initial education programme for pharmacists in Scotland has been developed. The first students to graduate from the new programme will qualify in 2027 with co-terminus graduation and registration. This will better prepare newly qualified pharmacists for practice, strengthen the clinical workforce, particularly in primary care, and manage trainee numbers to meet workforce requirements.

The Scottish Government is committed to having a pharmacist independent prescriber in every community pharmacy. As of December 2020 there were a total of 1585 pharmacists qualified prescribers or currently undertaking an independent prescribing qualification. As demand for pharmacy technicians grow and a skill mix is increasingly required in different pharmacy settings, increasing the pipeline of pharmacy technicians has become a priority. We are currently working with key stakeholders to develop a national pharmacy technician apprenticeship scheme.

As part of the overall 2021-22 community pharmacy financial package, a total of £2.751m provides each community pharmacy contractor with a monthly contribution of £180 towards staff training beyond pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.

We welcomed the launch of the Circuit, which aims to improve access to defibrillators across the UK. We would urge all defibrillator guardians to register their defibrillator so that the Scottish Ambulance Service call handlers can direct people to them in incidents of cardiac arrest. Registration of defibrillators in Scotland will build the evidence to support people and organisations in making informed decisions about where to place their life saving device.

We have reviewed the border health measures closely over the last 28 days and have assessed that there continues to be a requirement for the regulations to remain in place to reduce the risk of imported transmission and safeguard public health in Scotland. The regulations continue to be an important and proportionate part of the Scottish Government response to managing the pandemic. As we have done throughout the pandemic, we will continue discussions with UK Government and the other devolved administrations and continue to seek to take a four-nations approach to future changes to regulations and the travel regime.

This procedure is usually performed in an outpatient setting. Public Health Scotland can confirm that the SMR00 dataset contains outpatient clinic records where spirometry is listed as the main operation.

These conditions are usually recorded in an inpatient setting. Public Health Scotland can confirm that the SMR01 dataset contains records where idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and interstitial lung disease are listed as the primary diagnosis.