Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and myself met with hospice sector representatives on 14 March to discuss the pressures that the hospice sector are currently facing. The Scottish Hospice Leadership Group and a number of hospices continue to be valued members of the Scottish Government’s Strategy Steering Group for Palliative and End of Life Care, and Scottish Government officials continue to attend the Scottish Hospice Leadership Group (SHLG).

The Scottish Government does not collect statistics on the number of foster carers registered with local authorities or independent/voluntary service providers.

The Scottish Government is not currently considering the development of a Scottish patients clinical trials charter.

On 13 February 2023 the Scottish Government published an independent report on Improving Equity of Access to Cancer Clinical Trials in Scotland. We will be working with the cancer clinical research community to prioritise and develop the report's 51 recommendations.

Improving equity of access to cancer clinical trials in Scotland - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-15725 on 16 March 2023. 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 .

Our Programme for Government in 2021-22 committed to provision of high-quality child palliative care, regardless of location, supported by sustainable funding of at least £7 million per year through Children’s Hospices Across Scotland. Scottish Government officials are in discussions with CHAS about the sustainability and oversight of funding going forward.

It is the responsibility of Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) to plan and commission adult palliative and end of life care services for their areas using the integrated budgets under their control.

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and myself met with hospice sector representatives on 14 March to discuss the pressures that the hospice sector are currently facing, including representatives of adult hospices and CHAS.

A set of data tables for the most recent and historical hospital bed numbers is available in the annual PHS publication, which was released on 27 September 2022. The publications can be found at: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-annual/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-annual-annual-year-ending-31-march-2022/

Data is available from financial year 2012-13 to financial year 2021-22. Data is not available as far back as 1999. Data is not yet available for financial year 2022-23.

Hospital beds data is presented in Table 4 – beds data file, and the measure of interest is Average Available Staffed Beds, the indicator is Location of Interest, and you will need to Sub-Filter for All Specialties. The data for Portree Hospital will be listed under NHS Highland. The following table is an excerpt from the dataset which includes the Average Available Staffed Beds for All Locations of Treatment, NHS Highland, and Portree Hospital.

We will give full consideration to the recommendations of this report, which sets out both the challenges, and successes, of the continued recovery of our NHS from a global pandemic.

We are making good progress against our GP commitment and since 2017 GP headcount has increased by 291 and a record 5209 GPs are now working in Scotland.

Progress is measured by the annual GP Headcount Public Health Scotland publication. The latest publication can be found at:

General Practice - GP Workforce and practice list sizes 2012 - 2022 - General Practice - GP workforce and practice list sizes - Publications - Public Health Scotland

The assessment by Audit Scotland does not take into account GP Registrars in their final year of training, when assessing progress against this commitment. These registrars spend 12 months full time equivalent in a GP practice.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-15725 on 16 March 2023. 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

Ministers and Scottish Government officials regularly meet with representatives of all Health Boards, including NHS Highland, NHS Orkney and NHS Shetland, to discuss matters of importance to local people.

Improving access for women to appropriate support, speedy diagnosis and best treatment for endometriosis is one of the priorities set out in the Women’s Health Plan for 2021-24.

The Endometriosis Pathway for Scotland, created by the Modernising Patient Pathways Programme, was approved in January 2023 and has been shared in draft format with NHS Boards. The pathway, which is adapted from NICE guidelines, provides a streamlined, integrated pathway across primary, secondary and tertiary care that aims to provide a holistic approach and timely care for those with endometriosis and endometriosis-like symptoms. The pathway will be uploaded to the Centre for Sustainable Delivery’s (CfSD) website in the near future, at which point it will be formally shared widely across NHS Scotland.

In addition, to improve access to the most accurate and relevant information on endometriosis, we have updated the NHS Inform endometriosis page. This includes a link to the NICE Guidelines, to ensure the public are aware of current national guidelines.