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(a) The number of people accepted onto pre-registration midwifery training courses since the 2016-17 academic year is shown in the following table:

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that NHS Scotland has a skilled and sustainable workforce, we work in partnership with NHS Boards who are responsible for taking decisions about the configuration of midwifery services, commensurate with their local population needs.

We have taken a range of measures to support midwifery workforce supply, having grown the number of funded places on undergraduate midwifery programmes in Scotland by 20% over the last decade, to 301 funded places in 2022. Additionally, we offer a comprehensive and competitive package of student support, which is the best in the UK. In January 2022, we welcomed students from across Scotland on to a new, shortened midwifery training pathway at Edinburgh Napier University. These students will qualify as midwives in 20 months whilst continuing to work in their home regions, including in Scotland's remote and rural health boards.

In addition to our investment in education and training, we are providing direct recruitment support to all health boards across Scotland, through coordinated national marketing activity and support for ongoing international recruitment, including £8m to support the recruitment of up to 750 nurses, midwives and AHPs announced on 04 October 2022. We continue to look for opportunities to increase levels of recruitment and retention of healthcare staff in rural areas and have committed to undertaking further activity on remote and rural recruitment and retention, under the auspices of the National Health and Social Care Workforce Strategy.

The Scottish Government last provided funding to support a FAST campaign in 2018.

We receive many requests to run awareness campaigns, and we assess these carefully.

Where there is not an active public campaign relating to a specific condition, the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland refer the public to the NHS Inform website for further information in the first instance. The NHS inform stroke page provides the public with information relating to the FAST test and the importance of seeking medical attention.

As set out by the Deputy First Minister on 7 September 2022, there is a finite budget and, as a result of inflation eroding the purchasing power of available funding, the Scottish Government budget is now worth £1.7 billion less than it was in December 2021. As a result, health funding is worth £650 million less and the Scottish Government continues to work with Health Boards to mitigate the impact of financial pressures across services, including those supporting the needs of people living with long COVID.

£3 million of the £10 million long COVID Support Fund has been made available to NHS Boards and key partners over 2022-23. We engage with NHS Boards on a regular basis regarding their capacity needs, and will continue to do so in order to inform the allocation of the fund.

Throughout the pandemic we have refined the COVID-19 and flu appointment scheduling system, working directly with Health Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships to incorporate their feedback and improve processes.

We have increased the number of training sessions with scheduling staff, developed comprehensive online guidance that can be referred to at any time and we continue to work closely with Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships where specific issues arise. A dedicated review process is in place for this and any learning is then disseminated to other Boards as required.

The number of appointments available at clinics are based on the number of staff available on a given date. For example, if there are three vaccinators available at a clinic at 9am on a specific date then 3 appointments would be available to allocate for that time slot.

In instances where staff are sick absences may occur at short notice which cannot be foreseen, and bank cover staff are not always available at short notice to replace staff. Every effort is made to ensure there is sufficient vaccinators on site, however, as appointments are created and scheduled weeks in advance therefore local issues may arise.

Greater Glasgow and Clyde has put measures in place to try and reduce wait times and queues at its clinics by ensuring appropriate measures are in place to manage queues safely and effectively. For example, advising members of the public to arrive as close to their scheduled appointment time as possible to avoid queues.

Yes. As previously stated during the long COVID debate on 19 th May 2022 we committed to allocate “ funding of £3 million to health boards across 2022-23 to bolster the support that they are already providing to people with long COVID ”. This was confirmed in the Programme for Government 2022-23, published in September 2022, which stated that “ we will invest £3 million this year through the long COVID Support Fund to assist those living with long-term effects of infection .”

The Scottish Government assesses the need for public health awareness campaigns regularly. Scottish Government officials will work closely with the Stroke Improvement Team, which provides support and guidance to Managed Clinical Networks and the National Advisory Committee for Stroke, and other stakeholders to better understand what resources may be required for 2023, including the need for funding for a FAST campaign. Information regarding the symptoms of stroke, including the FAST test, is available on NHS Inform .

The Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme reports on NHS Board performance against the standards outlined in the Scottish Stroke Care Audit and the Stroke Improvement Plan. It is not within their remit to make recommendations about national campaigns.