Seòmar agus comataidhean

Further to the answer provided to question S6W-11404 issued on 4 November 2022, I can confirm that all Health Boards now have access to Clinical portals within acute services.

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 Scottish Government does not yet have complete YPFF data for the whole period of 2022-23 so we are unable to state the percentage of successful claims across the 12 month period. We expect Health Boards to have provided this data by the end of May 2023.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring fund accessibility as part of ongoing implementation. We met with Health Boards in summer 2022 to discuss the implementation of the fund and areas for improvement, including accessibility.

The Scottish Government does not yet have complete YPFF data for the whole period of 2022-23. We expect Health Boards to have provided this data by the end of May 2023.

Table 1 presents the latest available statistics on the total waiting list size for patients covered by the Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG) and the number of ongoing waits for treatment within an inpatient or day case setting at 31 December 2022, broken down by waiting times of over (a)two years (104 weeks), (b) two years and six months (130 weeks), and (c) three years (156 weeks) for an orthopaedic procedure.

Table 1 - Number of ongoing waits for an inpatient or day case admission for orthopaedics by length of wait in NHS Scotland, at 31 December 2022

The Scottish Government does not assess clinical diagnostic interventions.

However, non-invasive liver scans, including transient elastography devices such as FibroScan, are recommended by NICE in primary care settings and are currently used in several NHS Boards throughout Scotland to assess liver disease.

Currently, there is limited evidence on the efficacy of these scans in a community care context. Trials to test the expanded use of non-invasive liver scans are ongoing in both primary care and for populations at higher risk of liver disease in community care.

Since the inception of work to better understand the Arrochar litter sink in 2017, we have determined that approximately half of the litter has originated from the River Clyde catchment, and half from the open sea. We are using this knowledge to focus efforts on tackling the source of the litter over which we can have most influence, that from the River Clyde.

As such, the recently updated Marine Litter Strategy for Scotland includes actions on riverine litter, to prevent it and to support its removal. Our key delivery partner Keep Scotland Beautiful and their Upstream Battle project enables communities, businesses, and schools on the River Clyde to develop local solutions to reduce littering, and also support its clean-up. This initiative also supports citizen science and the outputs will inform further riverine litter policy, aiming to reduce and intercept litter before it reaches our seas. In addition, we are also engaging with Glasgow City Council to consider more options to increase litter removal from the River Clyde.

The forthcoming 10-year cancer strategy will be accompanied by a 3-year action plan aligning with the ambitions set out in our strategy. There will not be additional action plans for specific cancer types, however in both the strategy and plan we will continue to focus on those cancer types that are the largest burden and have poorer survival, in particular the less survivable cancers.

The bay at Arrochar was chosen as the location of a marine litter case study in Loch Long in 2017. Since then, a total of £183,827.78 has been spent on litter removal at the site. This includes the cost of heavy machinery contracting, haulage, and the disposal of the mixed debris. Costs have varied annually according the amount of material washed ashore requiring removal.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-16943 on 28 April 2023. 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