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The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people living with kidney diseases are able to access the best possible support and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care. We expect NHS Boards to adhere to current guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment options from authorative sources such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the UK Kidney Association (UKKA).

In Scotland we are at the forefront of using service and performance data to improve care and diagnosis of kidney disease. This includes the work of the Scottish Renal Registry which reports on patients receiving renal replacement therapy and promoting excellence in renal care in Scotland through best practice audits.

The National Cancer Quality Steering Group (NCQSG) has responsibility for the development and oversight of tumour specific national quality performance indicators (QPIs) to measure the quality of care for patients, this includes a set specifically for renal cancers.

We have also invested in research which is intended to inform new approaches for earlier diagnosis of kidney disease through the Scottish Chief Scientist Office: Kidney function and cancer risk: An analysis using creatinine and cystatin C in a cohort study (nih.gov) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8413238/ .

People with certain neuromuscular conditions, such as motor neurone disease and multiple sclerosis, are eligible for antiviral medication The eligibility criteria for direct access to new COVID-19 treatments were developed by an independent expert working group commissioned by the UK Department of Health and Social Care and is based on detailed clinical evidence. The criteria are set out in a UK-wide clinical commissioning policy . The policy targets those higher risk individuals who have the potential to both be least likely to generate a material immune response to vaccines and be at highest risk of disease progression, hospitalisation and death.

Further information is available on NHS Inform .

In addition to the direct access arrangements described above for the most vulnerable, coronavirus oral antiviral treatments are being evaluated through a UK-wide study called PANORAMIC, run by the University of Oxford. Full details about the eligibility criteria for the study can be found at: https://www.panoramictrial.org/

The outcomes from the study will enable the NHS to fully understand how best to make use of these treatments in the future.

Scottish Government is a key partner in the Save a Life for Scotland (SALFS) partnership. Since 2015, the SALFS has equipped more than 640,000 people in Scotland with CPR skills. Over the same time period the rate of people surviving an Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest in Scotland has increased from one in 20 to one in 10.

In March 2021, the partnership published an updated strategy, which can be found at: Out of hospital cardiac arrest: strategy 2021 to 2026 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Within this, there is a clear commitment to working closely with Local Authorities to ensure that all school aged children have the opportunity to learn CPR. SALFS partners continue to work collaboratively to implement the strategy.

Where GP practices are unable to routinely accept new patients onto their lists, Scottish Government expects Health Boards to work with practices as constructively and as flexibly as is appropriate to help manage the situation.

We recognise the need for more GPs in Scotland and this is why we have committed to increasing the workforce by 800 by 2027.

As part of the 2018 GP contract, we have recruited over 2400 Multi-Disciplinary team members. The recruitment of these pharmacists, advanced practitioner nurses, mental health workers, MSK Physios and Community Link Workers is helping create additional capacity in practices.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-06307 on 28 February 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

We have established a process for individuals who have received their coronavirus vaccinations outwith Scotland which allows for them to upload official proof of vaccination from an approved country to their Scottish Vaccination Record through NHS Inform . This will allow those who have been vaccinated within the UK or internationally to receive a combined fully vaccinated status to show for travel and domestic purposes.

The pandemic paused the Oral Health Improvement Programme, which was developing, through Design Groups, preventive and patient focused care through the New Model of Care.

The clear focus for Scottish Government is to recover and stabilise NHS dental services, enabling the sector to emerge from the pandemic in a condition to improve patient access to care. The recovery of the sector will support the development of the longer term reform programme, building back the sector to support necessary strategic reforms that develop the work that was developed in the Design Groups pre-pandemic.

Scottish Government has signalled some key areas for the reform programme through fee changes that were put in place form 1 February, in particular the preventive Childsmile element, focus on deprivation and harmonisation of examination fees for adult and child patients.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) is currently reviewing its 2007 recommendation against lung cancer screening. The work on developing a protocol for NHS Boards to undertake pilot programmes for lung cancer screening will resume once the NSC’s evidence review is complete, as any new recommendation will guide pilot design and implementation.

The information requested is not held centrally. However, patients are asked to contact their local Health Board single point of contact telephone number if they believe they are eligible for treatment. The phone lines are open seven days a week, including public holidays. Further information is available on NHS Inform .

Some COVID-19 positive individuals who meet the eligibility criteria will decide not to receive antiviral treatments, or may be unable to, for example due to other medications they are taking.

The Scottish Government believes effective voice is key to fair work and welcomes the CIPD’s contribution to highlighting the need for and the promotion of worker voice. We note their Working Lives Scotland report states that 19% of employees say they have no voice channel at work. More positively, it also notes the significant improvement in managerial openness among large organisations and public sector employees. We will continue to promote effective voice for all workers as the best way to ensure fair and democratic workplaces across Scotland, working in partnership with our stakeholders, including the STUC, employers, and the CIPD.

The Scottish Government expects all workers in Scotland to be treated fairly. Without control over employment law, we are using all the levers available to us to drive high quality and fair work, including effective workers’ voice, across the labour market.

Our Fair Work policy is underpinned by the Fair Work Convention’s Framework, which recognises effective voice as a critical dimension of Fair Work. We are working with our trade union partners and other stakeholders to promote and encourage wider fair work practices, including effective voice in various sectors, such as retail and hospitality. We are also working with stakeholders to deliver on our commitment in The Fair Work Action Plan, published in 2019, to work with the STUC to achieve increased collective bargaining focusing initially on four key sectors: social care; early years & child care; hospitality and construction.

Through our flagship Fair Work First approach, we are applying fair work criteria to public sector funding - asking employers to commit to providing appropriate channels for effective voice, such as trade union recognition along with adopting other fair work principles. In line with the Bute House Agreement , and subject to limits on devolved competence, we will strengthen conditionality yet further. By Summer 2022, we will make it a requirement for the recipients of public sector grants to provide appropriate channels for effective workers’ voice, such as trade union recognition.