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NHS Board’s baseline revenue allocations are set out annually in the Scottish Budget, as published on the Scottish Government’s website. In addition, resource and capital spending limits are reported in Board’s annual accounts, which are published on their websites.

The Scottish Government allocates funding to territorial NHS Boards based on the NRAC formula. The NRAC formula takes into account factors in addition to population levels, including excess costs of delivering healthcare in remote and rural areas.

Since 2006-07, baseline funding for health and social care has increased by 120% in cash terms and 37% in real terms.

Since 2012-13, over £3.5 billion of additional funding has been committed to those NHS Boards below their NRAC parity levels, ensuring all Boards remain within 0.6% of parity.

More information on the NRAC formula is available at: Resource Allocation Formula in Scotland - Finance - Data & intelligence from PHS (isdscotland.org)

Public Health Scotland publishes annual data on NHS eye examination on their website at: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/ophthalmic-workload-statistics/ophthalmic-workload-statistics-statistics-as-at-year-ending-31-march-2024/.

Figure 5b of that report provides data on referrals from community optometry to the hospital eye service.

Through implementation of the Women’s Health Plan we have established an NHS Board Women’s Health Lead Network with a Lead in every NHS Board. The Network enables the Leads to identify both common and local challenges and exchange ideas on innovation and best practice, along with discussions on progress to implement the Women’s Health Plan.

We have a clinical Menopause Specialists Network, which enables clinicians across Scotland with an interest in menopause care to share initiatives and good practice and discuss emerging challenges encouraging consistency of advice which can then be shared with local primary care teams.

We also established a National Menstrual Health Clinical Network to provide clinicians across Scotland with access to peer support, consistent expert clinical advice and facilitate further learning opportunities.

Further information about the progress to date against each of the priorities in the Women’s Health Plan can be found in the Women’s Health Plan Final Report.

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.

It is the responsibility of the Scottish Ambulance Service to ensure that response times are as quick as possible, regardless of geography.

The Scottish Ambulance Service completed a full review of Demand and Capacity across Scotland at the end of 2019 which involved looking at demand data and resources to predict current and future demand and map out the levels of staff and vehicles required across different parts of Scotland. The outcome of the review saw an increase in resourcing and staffing in both urban and rural areas across Scotland.

The Scottish Government are determined to tackle poverty and reduce health inequalities in Scotland - continuing to take wide ranging action to deliver improved outcomes for families and individuals across the country and to address the root causes of inequality.

The Health and Care Experience Survey and the National Performance Framework both provide Scottish Government with evidence to support the monitoring of inequalities and outcomes across Scotland, including rural areas.

The Scottish Government has committed to publish a plan setting out how all parts of the Scottish Government are delivering for Scotland’s rural mainland communities, by the end of the current Parliament. This is underpinned by the evidence compiled on Rural Scotland, Rural Scotland Data Dashboard: Overview - gov.scot which was published on 21 December 2023. In addition, the Scottish Islands Data dashboard was published on 5 December 2023.

The Plan will cover a range of key areas, including health and social care.

Officials engage with Health Boards and HSCPs on a regular basis to review health outcomes.

Routinely collected data on the waiting time for a diagnosis of endometriosis are not available.

However, in 2024 Endometriosis UK published a report based on a survey of 4,371 people who received a diagnosis of endometriosis from a medical practitioner or following a diagnostic intervention. The report suggested that the current average waiting time for a endometriosis diagnosis in Scotland is now 8 years and 10 months.

Endometriosis has two stages of diagnosis, a working diagnosis at primary care level and a confirmed diagnosis via laparoscopy at secondary care. Not everyone with endometriosis will want to have a laparoscopy to confirm their diagnosis, particularly if their symptoms can be well managed.

We know that excessively long waits for laparoscopy are not acceptable and we apologise to all patients waiting too long. We are determined to drive improvements in this area and continue to work with NHS boards on a number of actions which will see patients treated as quickly as possible.

We want people to achieve a working diagnosis as soon as possible to enable swift access to appropriate care and treatment.

There are several treatment options to manage the symptoms of endometriosis. These include pain management options and hormonal contraception as well as surgical interventions including laparoscopy. There is no cure for endometriosis. More information can be found on NHS Inform.

As set out in the Endometriosis Care Pathway for NHS Scotland clinicians should consider women’s individual needs in order to determine treatment for example symptoms, aspects of daily living and desire for fertility.

Through the actions set out in our Women’s Health Plan we have taken steps to support both women and health professionals to learn more about endometriosis, the symptoms and treatment options.

Further information about the progress to date against each of the priorities in the Women’s Health Plan can be found in the Women’s Health Plan Final Report.

The Scottish Government considers the varying needs of all parts of our population when developing plans and strategies, including the needs of people living in rural and island areas. We recognise that our rural and island communities have specific, place-based needs when it comes to the effective delivery of public services, including healthcare.

That is why we have established an NHS Board-led working group which is considering ways to improve delivery of safe, quality and sustainable healthcare services across rural and island Scotland.

More broadly, work is underway to develop a systematic approach to mainstreaming rural policy, the Rural Assessment Toolkit, which will support identifying and addressing the needs of rural communities and economies in our work.

Under the Islands Act 2018, the Scottish Government has a duty to consider issues that affect island communities in the development and delivery of all policies, strategies and services. We are also working with island communities and local authorities to develop a new National Islands Plan to be published later this year.

These workstreams support our endeavours to meaningfully improve outcomes for our rural and island communities across portfolios.

The Scottish Government have a number of initiatives already in place to attract healthcare professionals to rural areas, including Aberdeenshire.

The NHS Pharmacy First Scotland service is helping people to access the Right Care at the Right Place. It removes the need for unnecessary visits to GPs, Out of Hour services or Emergency Department for everyday self-limiting conditions.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) has reported that that in financial year 2023-24 alone, over 4.7 million Pharmacy First Scotland consultations were undertaken with 95% providing advice on self-care or treatment at the point of contact. PHS also reported that in 2023/24, 32% percent of the Scottish population (1,747,654 people) accessed Pharmacy First Scotland services at least once. PHS reports provide analysis of data at a national level, further aggregation by local area may be available online.

With Patient Group Directions (PGDs) in place for common clinical conditions such as shingles, urinary tract infections, skin conditions, impetigo and hay fever – patients can get prescription treatment without the need for an appointment at their GP practice. In 2023-24, Pharmacy First Scotland consultations using PGDs accounted for 3.8% of the total consultations (181,174) with 84% (154,809) resulting in treatment being provided by the community pharmacist.