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In 2016-17, 254 technicians were recruited by the Scottish Ambulance Service. 179 of these technicians were recruited to backfill vacancies left by technicians progressing to paramedic training.

In 2016-17, 179 paramedics were recruited from the existing technician workforce

I am aware of the situation with the East Craigs Medical Practice who informed NHS Lothian that they were unable to continue with their practice earlier this year. NHS Lothian has worked over recent months to put alternative arrangements in place to ensure continuity of quality patient care for patients registered with the practice. The contract was advertised and awarded to the Barclay Medical Group (Dr Des Spence and Partners) from 1 December 2017.

We know that GP recruitment and retention is an issue for some areas of Scotland. That’s why the groundbreaking new GP contract for Scotland – jointly designed and agreed with the British Medical Association – will help ensure that GPs are able to spend more time with patients and less time on bureaucracy. If accepted, it will help reduce doctors’ overall workload and make general practice an even more attractive career prospect by allowing GPs to focus on the patients who need them most.

At the LMC Conference last week I made a commitment to increase the number of GPs working in Scotland by at least 800 over the next 10 years. Further details on how we will achieve this will be set out in the third part of the National Workforce Plan, focussing on Primary Care that will be published early next year.

Information on NHS expenditure, mental health expenditure and percentage of expenditure that have been spent on children and adolescent mental health services in the hospital and community sectors in year 2016-17 is shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Child and Adolescent mental health expenditure¹, Total NHS expenditure² and Mental Health expenditure³

              Scotland 2016-17

1. Child and Adolescent mental health expenditure as recorded in the Costs Book (Report R04LSX and SFR 8.3).Data covers expenditure identified by NHS Boards as relating to NHS Mental Health services delivered in the hospital or the community that are specifically aimed at children and adolescents.

2. Total NHS expenditure as recorded in the Costs Book (Report R300).

3. Mental health expenditure as recorded in the Costs Book (Report R340). Again data covers expenditure identified by NHS Boards as relating to NHS Mental Health services delivered in the hospital or the community.

Note: Community Mental Health teams data is missing from NHS Fife, NHS Grampian and NHS Highland figures, therefore the expenditure on CAMHS for these boards is incomplete. This will also result in the Scotland total being incomplete.

Source: Scottish Health Service Costs, Report R300, R340, R04LSX and SFR8.3, ISD Scotland

In relation to part (a) of the question, information is not available centrally about the number of people who did not have dehydration at the time of admission but who developed it during the admission due to complications arising during the admission. When dehydration was recorded as the main reason for hospital treatment it is likely that it was present at the time of admission.

In relation to part (b), information about the treatment of dehydration is not centrally available, but if a diagnosis of dehydration was recorded then it may be reasonable to assume that it was also treated.

The table shows the number of patients for whom dehydration and other related conditions were one of the secondary diagnoses recorded but where a different diagnosis was the main reason for admission. Because dehydration is reported together with other conditions such as hypovolaemia (low blood volume) dehydration cannot be identified separately, with the result that the figures given are likely to overestimate the number of cases where dehydration was diagnosed.

Table: Number of people who had at least one admission to hospital during the year for which the main diagnosis was one other than dehydration but where volume depletion including dehydration or a related condition was one of the other diagnoses recorded; by Health Board of treatment; 1999 – 2016

The Scottish Government remains committed to a UK wide approach to the regulation of healthcare professionals, sensitive to Scotland’s specific needs.

The Scottish Government has had regular discussions with the healthcare regulatory bodies throughout the development of the consultation, ‘Promoting professionalism, reforming regulation.’

The Scottish Government has also worked closely with the Department of Health and the other Devolved Administrations on the development of the consultation, which was published by the Department of Health on behalf of the four countries. Whilst we do not intend to respond to the consultation directly, we have made Scottish stakeholders aware of the publication should they wish to respond independently.

Listening to independent voices is vital as we continue developing a world class sporting sector in Scotland. There is so much great work being carried out across the country and a collective voice allows that to be heard more powerfully.

I engage directly with the sports sector through the National Strategic Group, which brings together a wide range of stakeholders involved in sport and physical activity. This group are helping to form and shape our future activity by providing independent challenge and advice.

I also have regular direct interaction with many of the Scottish Sporting Governing Bodies.

Action 16 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-27 committed to fund the introduction of a Managed Clinical Network to improve the recognition and treatment of perinatal mental health problems. Recruitment to the network has been completed and it is now operational.

The network is undertaking a review of current inpatient MBU provision, including access to care for women irrespective of where they live in Scotland. The network also plans to put in place systems to monitor on-going access to beds. If it is judged that the number of beds is not sufficient to meet need, the network will make recommendations on how such need can be met.

The Budget Bill for 2017-18 included all health resource consequentials within the health budget. This amounted to £304 million.

Allocation of the further consequentials arising since the Budget Bill will be confirmed as part of the 2017-18 Spring Budget Revision.

Reported Road Casualties Scotland provides information on injury road accidents reported to the police. The latest statistics available are up to 2016.

The following table Shows the number of pedal cyclists who were involved in injury road accidents by local authority area.

Pedal cyclists involved in injury road accidents

 Although the number of pedal cyclists involved in accidents has increased from a low of 740 in 2007 to 808 in 2016 (9%), there has been a 47% rise over the same period in the distance travelled, as shown in the following table.

Source: Scottish Transport Statistics

Information on the wearing of cycle helmets is only available from 2013 onwards. The following table shows the number of casualties injured in road accidents by severity and whether they were wearing a helmet or not.

Pedal cyclists injured in road accidents by severity and whether wearing a helmet

Information on the cost of treating cyclists injured in road accidents is not held centrally.