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The Scottish Government supports NHS Scotland health boards in their efforts to ensure that they have the right staff in place to meet the healthcare needs of the local population. Nevertheless, it remains the responsibility of individual health board to carry out recruitment to their executive cohort in their role as employer. In doing so, boards will determine timeframes for appointment; we expect all boards to recruit timeously.

NHS Scotland health boards are presently planning recruitment to chief executive posts in NHS Highland, NHS Tayside and NHS Orkney. The Scottish Government is aware that indicative interview dates for the NHS Highland and NHS Tayside posts have been set for 17 and 18 October, and interviews are also planned for 24 October for the NHS Orkney post. The Golden Jubilee Foundation, has already commenced advertising for a new chief executive, following the decision of the incumbent to retire later this year. Finally, NHS Grampian are expected to begin recruitment for a new chief executive in the new year, with Prof. Amanda Croft currently filling the role on an interim basis.

There has been no additional cost to the Scottish Ambulance Service as a result of increases in inter hospital tranfers from Dr Gray's Hospital. The Service currently has an additional ambulance resource operating from Elgin ambulance station to help reduce the impact of increased transfers and the costs of this additional resource, including staffing, are being met by NHS Grampian.

NHS Boards report private sector spending in their annual accounts and figures for the five years to 2016-17 are set out in the following table. Figures for 2017-18 will be available after the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts for 2017-18 have been signed off by the Auditor General for Scotland and laid in the Scottish Parliament. We expect this to be completed by the end of September.

NHS Boards make limited use of the independent and private sector for health care services and in 2016-17 private sector spend comprised 0.6% of total Health resource spending and decreased by £6.3 million compared to 2015-16.

The Scottish Government’s “Policy for Property and Asset Management in NHSScotland” [CEL 35 (2010)] requires all NHS Scotland bodies to have a Property and Asset Management Strategy (PAMS). The PAMS sets out how each board will strategically manage its assets to support effective service delivery including planning, acquisition, operation and disposal of assets.

NHS Grampian’s current PAMS is available online from:

http://foi.nhsgrampian.org/globalassets/foidocument/foi-public-documents1---all-documents/item10for01062017AssetManagmentPlan2017.pdf

A report containing a complete data set on all Phase 1 Graduate Apprenticeship starts in 2017-2018, will be published by Skills Development Scotland towards the end of this year.

We have not had any communication with NHS Grampian on the future of Leanchoil Hospital. Moray Integration Joint Board (IJB) is currently conducting a public consultation on reshaping older people’s services in the Forres area. We expect the IJB to ensure that any changes ensure modern, high quality care services that best support people to maintain their wellbeing and independence in their own communities.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-17987 on 9 August 2018. 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-17987 on 9 August 2018. 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.

There has been no communication between Scottish Government and NHS Grampian, Highland or Tayside on proposals to merge their Boards.

We have no intention to reduce the number of Health Boards. Our focus is on strengthening collaborative working between NHS Boards and their partners through the regional planning and development of services. Each individual Health Board will retain final sign off on any proposals stemming from Regional Planning.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-17987 on 9 August 2018. 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.