Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-33638 on 27 January 2025. 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

This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. We would advise the Member to contact relevant Health Boards for this data.

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering equitable and sustainable healthcare services across NHS Scotland through a comprehensive reform agenda. This includes a renewed approach for planning for NHS Scotland to ensure that appropriate clinically led planning for services is undertaken at a level which is best aligned to the size of population who make use of those services, and that this is undertaken in a collaborative and coherent way, with appropriate national leadership. These initiatives aim to deliver the highest quality outcomes for Scotland's population, ensuring healthcare services are equitable, effective, and future-proofed.

As part of this broader NHS reform, work is currently underway to develop and implement target operating models for NHS Scotland’s oncology services. These models are designed to ensure the delivery of excellent care that is equitably accessible to everyone across Scotland, regardless of their geographic location.

In addressing disparities in cardiology services, the Scottish Government’s Heart Disease Action Plan (2021) outlines specific actions to ensure timely and equitable access to diagnosis, treatment, and care for all individuals with suspected heart disease. Building on this, in 2024, we collaborated with clinicians across Scotland to establish agreed care pathways for cardiology. Combined with data from the Scottish Cardiac Audit Programme, these pathways will help identify priority areas for improvement and drive meaningful change in heart disease care delivery.

An NHS Board-led working group has also been convened to develop a framework for safe, quality and sustainable healthcare services across our rural and island communities. This work aims to develop a balanced model, with services provided as local as possible and specialised as necessary in order to ensure equity of outcomes.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-33681 on 27 January 2025. 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

Under General Ophthalmic Services arrangements in Scotland, all community optometry practices are required to have a range of equipment (including a digital retinal imaging equipment) to support the early detection of eye disease.

The SCONe project (https://clinical-sciences.ed.ac.uk/ophthalmology/scone) is a collaboration between the University of Edinburgh, Glasgow Caledonian University and the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. It brings together the retinal images taken during an NHS eye examination with other routinely-collected healthcare data within Scotland’s NHS National Safe Haven. The first aim of SCONe is to analyse these images in order to evaluate changes in the macula and age-related macula degeneration.

On 30 October, the Scottish Government published the Transport to Health delivery plan which sets out commitments against transport and healthcare across the work of Health and Social Care and Transport Scotland. The plan was informed by the 2019 Transport to health and social care report prepared by the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland (MACS) on behalf of Ministers.

As set out in the plan, we will support Regional Transport Partnerships to develop their own plans around Transport to Health. An example of this will be continuing to support the work of the Health and Transport Action Plan led by NESTRANS and partners in Aberdeenshire.

Transport Scotland have included Transport to Health as one of seven thematic workstreams in their approach for delivery of the Accessible Travel Framework.

The Scottish Government’s role is to set the strategic policy for the NHS in Scotland, NHS Boards are responsible for service delivery. All Health Boards should consider patient transport needs when they plan and deliver services.

On 30 October, the Scottish Government published the Transport to Health delivery plan which sets out commitments against transport and healthcare across the work of Health and Social Care and Transport Scotland. The plan was informed by the 2019 Transport to health and social care report prepared by the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland (MACS) on behalf of Ministers.

As set out in the plan, we will continue to use the NHS annual delivery plans to re-emphasise the need for Health Boards to consider patient access as part of the care pathway and reflecting the opportunity that is emerging for reducing the number of patient journeys through alternative options.

It is for the Chief Constable, working with the working with the Scottish Police Authority, to determine how to allocate its budget to meet policing priorities including any safeguards any criminality arising from protests. In 2025-26, the Scottish Government will increase police funding to £1.62 billion to support police capacity and capability. This includes almost £57 million in additional resource funding – an increase of 4% compared to 2024-25 published budget.

Through the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care, housed within NHS Education for Scotland, the Scottish Government are supporting the health workforce in rural and island areas.

A detailed programme of monthly rural specific training sessions are being delivered for multi-disciplinary rural practitioners online to ensure access for the widest group of rural practitioners across Scotland.

New rural specific training programmes are being developed and delivered to support the specific needs of the remote and rural Primary Care and community services workforce. Current programmes of work include focused support and training for remote and rural dispensing practices, new resources being developed to support Primary Care professionals to become trainers within the community and Primary Care Practice settings for Advanced Nurse, Pharmacy, and Practice Nurse Practitioners.

The Scottish Government is not aware of any workforce shortages in community optometry. NHS Scotland commissioned and published a National Ophthalmic Workforce Review report in May 2023 which is available at: https://www.nhscfsd.co.uk/media/pjwntap4/national-ophthalmic-workforce-review-may-2023.pdf

The Scottish Government is working with Higher Education Institutions to deliver a new UK-leading Master's optometry undergraduate degree. This will support all optometry graduates from 2029 to have the opportunity to qualify with Independent Prescribing.