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NHS Tayside have indicated that the median waiting time for a new outpatient urology appointment within NHS Tayside based on completed waits in September 2018, was 20 weeks. The Board currently have 2,077 new outpatients waiting for a Urology appointment with 671 of these having received appointment dates.

NHS Tayside are developing plans to deliver improved and sustainable access and performance. As part of their Integrated Clinical Strategy, a review of how Urology Services across the region should be provided has commenced. NHS Tayside are working with clinical teams to develop a long term sustainable plan which will deliver the capacity required to meet demand for urological services going forward. The Scottish Government has also made an additional £50 million available this year to NHS Boards with NHS Tayside receiving £3.9 million to reduce the number of patients experiencing exceptionally long waits.

Our National Performing Companies and National Collections often enter into collaborations with key partners across the UK and further afield. Creative Scotland too have developed strong links with partners across the UK.

Scotland House London delivers an ambitious and exciting programme to engage local audiences with Scotland's culture, with a wide-ranging programme of events.

Both the Scottish and UK Governments were key partners in the 2018 Edinburgh International Culture Summit which welcomed visitors from across the globe.

We also work closely with the British Council, to promote and support Scottish creative talent at home and abroad.

Each NHS board has access to a passive immunisation medical product (Palivizumab) that can reduce the worst complications of RSV in those young children at the greatest risk of complications of RSV once they have become infected with this virus. All eligible children will be under the care of hospital based paediatricians, and therefore the use of palivizumab is determined by them on a clinical basis, in the RSV season.

The GP Recruitment and Retention fund has resulted in 57 GPs being recruited across Scotland. The funding offered by the Scottish Government enabled projects to be developed and funding to be mainstreamed.

NHS Ayrshire and Arran, Tayside and the Deep End Pioneer Scheme are all in the process of recruiting new GPs onto their fellowships programmes which proved to be highly successful under the GP Recruitment and Retention fund that health boards are now supporting them. We continue to fund the development of the Scottish Rural Medicine Collaborative that has brought together 10 Health Boards across rural Scotland and are investing a further £7.5 million this year to recruit and retain GPs.

Listed below are the numbers of GPs broken down by board that officials have been sourcing as data was not held centrally.

The Scottish Government will launch a consultation on restricting domestic advertising and promotion of e-cigarettes in early 2019. This timetable will allow for the Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 to come into force. These Regulations which are currently being considered in the UK Parliament cover electronic cigarette advertising and are likely to come into force in early 2019. If the UK and the EU reach a withdrawal agreement which means these EU Exit Regulations are no longer required then our consultation may begin sooner.

Health Boards must ensure that their neonatal units are appropriately and safely staffed. All NHS boards with a neonatal unit have run the neonatal nursing workload tool in 2016 and 2017, with the exception of NHS Highland. Scottish Government officials have contacted the Executive Nurse Director of NHS Highland about their use of the neonatal workforce planning tool. We will work with NHS Highland to ensure they run the neonatal workforce planning tool and provide whatever support they require.

NHS boards run the workload tool twice daily and the output provides valuable information not only for planning staffing numbers, but to identify staffing requirements on a daily basis which takes account of the dynamic nature of services. We have committed to enshrine safe staffing in law, placing the existing nursing and midwifery workload and workforce planning tools on a statutory footing.

Bliss played a vital part in our national maternity and neonatal review, 'The Best Start: A Five Year Forward Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Care in Scotland'. Bliss are represented on the ‘Best Start’ Implementation Programme Board. The Programme Board is examining neonatal workforce and education as part of their programme of work to take forward the package of recommendations. Work is well underway to implement the recommendations contained within The Best Start review.

A full written update on progress will be available at the end of the year and will be placed in SPICe.

We do not have a single measure that captures performance against this aim, as the provision of palliative care depends on the interaction of a range of services - formal palliative care, care at home and care home services, and access to hospice and hospice-at-home services - that vary considerably in definition between local systems. Good care at end of life requires collaborative, multi-disciplinary support, which is why Integration Authorities have been given statutory responsibility for meeting this need. Integration Authorities regularly report on their progress using the 23 indicators ( https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Health/Policy/Adult-Health-SocialCare-Integration/Outcomes/Indicators/Indicators ) that support the statutory outcomes set out in the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014.

The indicator currently used nationally to gauge progress on improving palliative and end of life care provision is the percentage of last six months of life spent in the community. Integration Authorities met their planned trajectory for this indicator of 88% for 2017-18, which is an increase from 86.7% since the publication of the Health and Social Care Delivery Plan in 2015-16. However, we recognise that this indicator is only a measure of place of care, rather than quality or experience of care, and is not sufficient on its own. We are working with partners in local systems and health and social care professionals to develop better measures for this aim.

The Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care policy in Scotland. However, the statutory responsibility for delivering or commissioning services at a local level lies with local authorities, NHS Boards and integrated health and social care partnerships. From 2015 the Scottish Government provided additional financial support to enhance clinical nurse specialist provision and care. The report on specialist nursing and care fund published in September 2017 can be accessed here https://www.gov.scot/publications/report-specialist-nursing-care-fund/ . Operational decisions, including the care of people with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) and whether there is a need for additional MPN specialist nurses, are therefore matters for these bodies. To date, NHS Boards have not raised any concerns with me about a lack of MPN specialist nurses.

The Scottish Government sets strategic policy for NHSScotland. The responsibility to deliver safe and sustainable services rests locally with Health Boards.

ISD Scotland publish quarterly national workforce data, broken down by NHS Board.

Data on Medical Consultants is available on ISD's 'Medical' dashboard:

http://www.isdscotland.org/health-topics/Workforce/publications/2018-09-04/Medical-and-Dental.asp

Use the ‘Grade’ dropdown to select ‘Consultant’ and ‘Specialty’ drop down to select ‘All Medical Specialties’.

Data on Anaesthetists/Doctors is available on ISD's 'Medical' dashboard:

http://www.isdscotland.org/health-topics/Workforce/publications/2018-09-04/Medical-and-Dental.asp

Use the ‘Specialty’ drop down to select ‘Anaesthetics’.

Data on Psychiatry is available on ISD's 'Medical' dashboard:

http://www.isdscotland.org/health-topics/Workforce/publications/2018-09-04/Medical-and-Dental.asp

Use the ‘Specialty’ drop down to select any/all of the specialties that end in ‘Psychiatry’ as it is a field that is split into different areas.

Data on Nurses is available on ISD's 'Nursing and Midwifery' dashboard:

http://www.isdscotland.org/health-topics/Workforce/publications/2018-09-04/Nursing-and-Midwifery.asp

Use the ‘Sub Job Family’ drop down to select ‘Nursing’.

Data on Physiotherapists is available on ISD's 'Allied Health Professionals' dashboard:

http://www.isdscotland.org/health-topics/Workforce/publications/2018-09-04/AHP.asp

Use the ‘Profession’ drop down to select ‘Physiotherapy’.

Data on Occupational Therapy is available on ISD's 'Allied Health Professionals' dashboard:

http://www.isdscotland.org/health-topics/Workforce/publications/2018-09-04/AHP.asp

Use the ‘Profession’ drop down to select ‘Occupational therapy’.

Data on Pharmacy is available on ISD’s ‘Other Staff Groups’ dashboard:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2018-09-04/OSG.asp

Use the ‘Job Family’ drop down to select ‘Other Therapeutic Services’ and then ‘Sub Job Family’ drop down to select ‘Pharmacy’.

Data on Addiction is available on ISDs ‘Clinical Nurse Specialists’ table:

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2017-12-05/Clinical_Nurse_Specialists_S2017.xls

Centrally-held data on Addiction specialists is only available for CNSs. Data is not available for the total number of staff working in the area.

Data on Psychologists is available on ISD’s ‘Psychology Workforce' tables:

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2018-09-04/2018-09-04-Psychology-Workforce-Tables.xls

Tab 1.1 contains overall psychology figures by board. Tab 3.2, under ‘Physical Health’ provides numbers for ‘Pain’.

The information requested on ‘chronic pain services’ is not centrally available. National workforce data records the staff group, profession and specialty of staff in post. It does not capture the service(s) that an individual employee may contribute to.