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The Scottish Government has adopted a professions model. All our jobs are now aligned to profession and related job family and job type. We are starting to apply related expectations into how we design jobs and recruit people for jobs. For some professions and job types this will include professional membership and accreditation requirements that either need to be achieved on entry or once in the job - e.g. Finance, Procurement. For a few professions, professional memberships are mandatory to be able to practice - e.g. Law. Our Heads of Profession oversee these expectations and standards.

Whilst NHS Boards are encouraged to protect planned care, they must ensure that patients who require urgent care, including cancer treatment, are prioritised. In the case of Aberdeen Royal Infirmary patient cancellations have affected orthopaedic elective procedures. Where cancellations do take place, the large majority are routine procedures – although this should not underestimate the impact on the patient involved – and patients are rescheduled as quickly as possible.

To improve the availability of post-operative beds we are developing ‘Once for Scotland’ pathways, harnessing all opportunities to deliver patient care in the right place and closer to home, this includes maximising day case procedures to avoid any unnecessary stays in hospital.

This includes NHS Grampian’s bed base review to increase beds, which will reduce the need to board into planned care beds.

All our professional memberships are held by and apply to individuals so the Scottish Government as a body does not hold professional memberships.

While no formal post-legislative review has yet to be undertaken, my officials have been informally monitoring the use of Experimental Traffic Regulation Orders (ETROs) by local authorities. Given the initial low uptake of ETROs following the legislative changes made it was felt that no formal review was required at that time.

Officials have advised that the scope of a review is currently being considered and that we plan to write to all local authorities to gather their views on the ETRO procedures within the next 4 months. It should be stressed that this review is often undertaken post-legislative change and would look at the numbers of ETROs brought in under the new legislation and any common issues local authorities are facing to help inform any further legislative change in the future. The review will not impact on the operation of existing ETROs or of TROs that are subsequently made under the current legislation.

Officials have also had a number of informal discussions with a number of local authorities who were in the initial stages of considering if an ETRO was suitable for various schemes. No specific record has been made of these conversations given that they are standard discussions between Transport Scotland and local authority officials

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-33695 on 27 January 2025.

In addition, the Scottish Government has not received correspondence with regards access to community optometry services for children living in rural and remote areas.

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 National Health Service (General Ophthalmic Services) (Scotland) Regulations 2006, as amended, do not require community optometry practices to be accessible for disabled people. However, the majority of practices are accessible. Where they are not, the Scottish Government provides an additional fee to practices for the provision of domiciliary care to eligible patients.

The Scottish Government has a number of incentives already in place, amongst which is the Scottish Distant Island Allowance (SDIA), an addition to salary which supports staff with the costs of travelling to and from the mainland. NHS staff who work in the majority of Scotland’s islands are eligible to receive SDIA.

There is also the Scottish Government funded ‘Golden Hello’ scheme, administered by NHS Scotland Boards, which provides up to £10,000 to every GP taking up an eligible post in a rural area.

To attract dentists to rural areas we have made available a range of grants and allowances including the recruitment and retention allowance, which allows new trainee dentists practicing in eligible areas, to qualify for a ‘Golden Hello’ payment of up to £37,500 in the first three years of practice.

Furthermore, to support GPs to develop the skills required to work in rural areas, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) offers the Rural GP Fellowship. The fellowship provides qualified GPs with direct experience of working in rural and island areas across rural and island Health Boards, with the fellowship lasting a full year.

ScotGEM offers a unique four-year programme tailored to meet the current and future needs of NHS Scotland with a focus on rural medicine, healthcare improvement and developing interest in General Practice. ScotGEM students are eligible to apply for and receive a ‘Return of Service’ bursary of £4,000 per annum which commits them to working for NHS Scotland for the corresponding number of years following graduation. In addition to the return of service bursary, the Scottish Government pays the tuition fees for eligible students, offering an attractive package for potential applicants.

In addition to the Scottish Government funded incentives, staff being recruited to posts in rural and island areas may also be eligible for relocation expenses, the decision to offer relocation expenses lies solely with boards.

Health boards are expected to offer vaccination in a way that best suits the needs of their communities, using a patient-centred approach, as set out in Public Health Scotland’s (PHS) 5-year Vaccination and Immunisation Framework and Delivery Plan.

This plan states that boards should “ensure availability of a range of flexible, responsive, and good-quality immunisation services that meet the needs of all communities, including our rural and island communities”.

The Scottish Government continues to fund Scottish Ambulance Service mobile vaccination units. These are available to every Health Board to deliver across all vaccination programmes and are to be used to reach under-served communities, including those in rural areas.

Boards also offer flu and COVID-19 vaccinations to housebound patients at home on request. Details on how to arrange this are included in the vaccination appointment letter.

Lastly, there is the option for rural health boards to explore the use of Community Treatment and Care services to support vaccination programmes in rural communities.

Health Boards received core capital funding of £453 million as part of their 2025-26 budget allocation from the Scottish Government, which is an increase of £139 million on 2024-25. This will be primarily focussed on delivering improvements to existing facilities and upgrading medical equipment. It will also allow the plans to complete the Baird Family Hospital and ANCHOR Cancer Centre in Aberdeen and for plans to replace the Belford Hospital in Fort William to be taken forward.

In the last 5 years, the Scottish Government have successfully delivered facilities that support remote and rural healthcare such as Badenoch and Strathspey Community Hospital and Broadford Hospital in Skye. There has been substantial investment in national treatment centres which serve all of Scotland, including the NTC Highland which is located in Inverness.

The requested information on how many vacancies for (a) GP's there currently are in rural areas is not centrally held. However this information is available by health board and can be found on the following link:

General Practice Workforce Survey 2024 | Turas Data Intelligence

The requested information on how many vacancies for (b) nurses and (c) allied health professionals there currently are in rural areas is not centrally held. However this information is available by health board and can be found on the following link: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence