Seòmar agus comataidhean

We are considering how to address access to medicines for the treatment of some cancers in the draft new cancer strategy and action plan. Safe, realistic and effective treatment is one of our key ambitions.

The Scottish Government continues to work with its partners and key stakeholders, including Public Health Scotland, health boards, and across the Four Nations to prepare Scotland to identify and respond to future infectious disease and pandemic threats. This work builds on existing health protection approaches, including the 2011 UK Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy , and a now enhanced respiratory surveillance programme.

National preparedness arrangements include stockpiles of clinical consumables, PPE, medicines, a contract for access to a pandemic influenza vaccine – and a national pandemic influenza service at 4 Nation level to distribute antivirals. NHS Boards have pandemic flu plans based on guidance – and are also expected to plan locally on a multi-agency basis with Resilience Partnerships and/or HSCPs. The Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Act 2022 was passed last year, giving the Scottish Government new powers to respond to public health emergencies. This includes provisions for education, higher and further education, care services, housing, justice.

The Scottish Government established the Standing Committee on Pandemic Preparedness to bring together scientists and technical experts to advise the Scottish Government on the future risks from pandemics and how best to approach these. The final report will be presented later this year.

While NHS Boards hold the direct responsibility for staffing, we are providing direct investment to assist boards, including those in the South Scotland region, in growing and retaining their workforce. This has included funding to support the recruitment of up to 750 nurses, midwives, and allied health professionals from overseas before April 2023.

In addition, our National Workforce Strategy sets out the actions we will take in partnership with Boards to plan, attract, train, employ and nurture the health and social care workforce.

Further meetings with Professor Sir Lewis Ritchie, NHS Highland, elected members of Skye, Lochalsh and South West Ross and the wider public community have built on the recommendations in the original (2018) report. Professor Sir Lewis Ritchie issued his written view of assessment of progress, with further recommendations and qualifications to the respective local Chairs of Implementation of the SLSWR OOH Review Report and NHS Highland Board, following in-person visits to Skye in December 2018 and May 2019 and a virtual assessment of progress in October 2020, during the height of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-15536. on‎ 17 March 2023. Any update of progress of this independent review would require to come from NHS Highland as the responsible agency for implementation.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

We are developing a new 10 year cancer strategy that will launch in Spring 2023 and takes a comprehensive approach to improving patient pathways from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care. We are considering the specific needs of blood cancer patients.

Programme for Government 2021/22 committed an additional £20 million investment, over the life of this Parliament, for the Detect Cancer Earlier (DCE) Programme to improve early detection rates. So far investment has been made into the development of a new behaviour change campaign to reduce fear of cancer, launched 6 March 2023.

Through the Programme, there’s a firm focus on lung cancer which remains a national priority. This funding has included supporting implementation of Scotland’s optimal lung cancer diagnostic pathway (published December 2022); exploring the role of artificial intelligence in expediting those identified as higher risk; continuation of the University of Edinburgh’s LUNGSCOT study; and establishing a National Bronchoscopy & EBUS Training Programme for NHS Scotland.

A new earlier diagnosis vision is expected to launch in Spring 2023, as part of Scotland’s new cancer strategy – this will be supported by a 3 year action plan, the delivery of which will be supported by this Detect Cancer Earlier (DCE) Programme investment.

The review undertaken by Professor Sir Lewis Ritchie was conducted in his capacity as an independent reviewer. The programme of engagement resulted in around 70 meetings with the Board and other key stakeholders. Due to the number of meetings, confidentiality and level of engagement no formal agendas or minutes were taken however progress was captured and fed back to NHS Highland and the relevant community groups. It would not be the place of the Scottish Government to publish these documents due to the nature of the review. However, Professor Ritchie and officials visited Portree again in May and November 2022. Minutes of these meetings are available via the Implementation Group and NHS Highland.

Guidance is provided by the Scottish Government to Health Boards which is publicly available on the following website SHOW - SGHSC - Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates including guidance on matters in relation to attraction and retention of medical and non-medical staff. The Centre for Workforce Supply, hosted by NHS Education for Scotland works with Health Boards to support the building of workforce capacity.

Details of funding for the Redesign of Urgent Care is provided in the following table.

During 2022-23 we invested £50 million in the Urgent and Unscheduled Care Collaborative Programme which aims to support NHS Boards to improve hospital processes and enhance out-of-hospital care. This approach gives Health Boards the flexibility to focus on their key priorities with Redesign of Urgent Care one of the fixed anchor points Boards need to sustain.

Breakdown of funding awarded for RUC since 2020-21: