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The following table lists NHS facilities which have fully closed in each year since 2007, information on NHS facilities which have closed temporarily is not centrally available.

The services provided from these hospitals, will have been re-provided in an alternative hospital, community or primary care facility and are noted in the answer.

Over the same period, new investment was undertaken in the following clinical facilities:

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-10188 on 2 August 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-06745 on 24 February 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Our cancer strategy, ‘Beating Cancer: Ambition and Action’ recognises the need to reduce the variation in survival rates of different types of cancer as much as possible. The strategy is accompanied by £100 million investment, and serves as a blueprint for the future of cancer services in Scotland. We also support the national Quality Performance Indicator programme which aims to drive improvement in the outcomes and survival rates for people with cancer, including those noted by the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce.

In 2014 to help support earlier referral or investigation of patients who may be showing a suspicion of cancer, Healthcare Improvement Scotland updated and published revised Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer, which cover a wide range of tumour types. These guidelines should help in the identification of peoplemost likely to have cancer and require specialist assessment. The updated version of the guidelines is available at the following Link: http://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.org/our_work/cancer_care_improvement/programme_resources/scottish_referral_guidelines.aspx.

With regard to pancreatic cancer specifically, Scotland is currently the only part of the UK whose government is specifically co-funding research into pancreatic cancer along with a charity.

As part of the £4 million Precision Medicine Ecosystem Investment announced by the First Minister in February 2016, the Scottish Government has made available over £700,000 to support “Precision Panc”, a pan-Scotland study led by Professor Andrew Biankin from the University of Glasgow that uses state of the art techniques to better characterise pancreatic cancer, allowing patients to be recruited to clinical trials efficiently and quickly. In March 2017, Cancer Research UK announced an investment of £10 million to support Precision Panc. This investment will allow the molecular profiling of patients’ tumours, and help to improve our understanding of this tumour type.

The Scottish Government has provided funding for 111 continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices in 2017-18 as set out in Directors Letter DL (2017) 13.

We have followed the advice of the Scottish Diabetes Group (SDG) with funding allocated in 2017-18 to ensure that appropriate CGM services are established in NHS Boards across Scotland.

We will fund a higher number of CGMs in subsequent years but the approach we have taken will help ensure equality of access for those with the greatest clinical need regardless of where they live in Scotland.

I wrote to Vertex Pharmaceuticals in March to encourage them to take forward discussions about the cost of Orkambi® with colleagues in National Health Services Scotland who are best placed to advise them on pricing approaches and a fair price that could support the securing of a positive recommendation from the Scottish Medicines Consortium for the prescribing of these products in NHSScotland. Those talks are underway.

Through those discussions we hope that the manufacturer will make their best offer on price and indicate that they will re-submit an application for Orkambi® to the SMC.

The Scottish Medicines Consortium is working in collaboration with patient groups, health boards, pharmaceutical companies, the Scottish Government and other stakeholders on the review of the definitions of end-of-life, orphan and ultra-orphan medicines. This work is progressing at pace.

Dr Brian Montgomery considered the views of a wide range of diverse stakeholders across Scotland as part of his independent review into access to new medicines and these influenced his final report and 28 recommendations. We continue to work with a diverse range of stakeholders and partners as we implement the recommendations.

I wrote to Vertex Pharmaceuticals in March to encourage them to take forward discussions about the cost of Orkambi® with colleagues in National Health Services Scotland who are best placed to advise them on pricing approaches and a fair price that could support the securing of a positive recommendation from the Scottish Medicines Consortium for the prescribing of these products in NHSScotland. Those talks are underway.

Through those discussions we hope that the manufacturer will make their best offer on price and indicate that they will re-submit an application for Orkambi® to the SMC.

The New Medicines Fund (NMF) provides financial support to NHS Boards for End of Life, Orphan and Ultra Orphan medicines which can be accessed by clinicians in a number of ways such as Individual Patient Treatment Requests, Peer Approved Clinical System requests or medicines accepted by the Scottish Medicines Consortium.

The Scottish Government is committed to continuing to invest in the NMF on the basis of the operation of the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme and these receipts will be directed into the New Medicines Fund in future years, as is currently case.