Current status: Answered by Maree Todd on 16 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how it measures unwarranted geographic inequalities in MS and neurology services, and what plans it has to address any such inequalities.
As part of delivering the Neurological Care and Support – a National Framework for Action and meeting the National Health and Well-being Outcomes, we are working closely with health and social care services to contribute in reducing health inequalities. We will continue this work over the course of the Framework, ensuring the necessary resource is directed at addressing the underlying causes of health inequalities.
We anticipate that resources such as the Scottish Multiple Sclerosis Register will inform this work, through enhancing our understanding of the MS epidemiology and landscape in Scotland, and helping us to identify where we can focus work to further drive up standards of care.
Across the Scottish Government, and with COSLA and Public Health Scotland, work to drive improvement in health and wellbeing at a community level is being progressed. We will do this by developing a framework to support a coherent place-based approach to tackling health inequalities within communities.