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Scottish Government Officials are in regular contact with NHS Lanarkshire, as with all Health Boards, on out of hours issues through a variety of channels, e.g. through attendance at the National Out of Hours Operations Group or when gathering information on OOH cover over the Festive and Easter period or in response to specific intelligence. With regard to this specific issue we have liaised with NHS Lanarkshire who have provided reassurance that when OOH services have been forced to close the Airdrie site and operate from the Douglas St Clinic in Hamilton, they have managed to cope with demand, and where necessary provide additional transport for those patients who have difficulty getting to Hamilton.

I have portfolio responsibility for this work.

We commissioned Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) to run a pilot Financial Health Check service for older people throughout November 2017. Fourteen bureaux took part across Scotland and undertook a range of different activities to attract interest in and then deliver the Financial Health Check over the month-long period. The evaluation of the pilots carried out by CAS showed a good level of financial gain for many older people who used the service.

Further, our Every Child, Every Chance: Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan contains a specific commitment to launch a Financial Health Check Guarantee for low income families with children. This programme will begin rollout in 2018, based on learning from the CAS evaluation.

Costings will be considered as part of our on-going work on the design and delivery of the roll-out of this service.

We are currently considering options for the roll-out of the financial health check. Any procurement process we undertake will adhere to the Scottish Government Procurement Policy Manual: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2006/05/spdpolicymanual .

As outlined in Every Child, Every Chance: The Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan, we will begin roll-out of a financial health check for families on low income in 2018. We are currently considering options for the design and delivery of this work alongside how to build on the pilot financial health check service for older people delivered in November 2017.

We have committed to begin roll out of the financial health check to low income families in 2018. There are currently 140,000 families with children in relative poverty who would be eligible for a financial health check and uptake of this service will be closely monitored once launched.

This is an operational matter for NHS Lanarkshire.

This is an operational matter for NHS Lanarkshire.

This is an operational matter for NHS Lanarkshire.