Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Heart Disease Action Plan recognises the need to ensure timely and equitable access to diagnostics, including echocardiography.

As set out within the plan, we are working to address key workforce issues relating to cardiac physiology. Cardiac Physiologists are healthcare professionals who are vital to the delivery of many aspects of cardiac care, including the provision of echocardiography.

Furthermore, we have also recently provided funding for the delivery of a pilot project to improve access to echocardiography. The learning from this will support us in understanding how best to further support improvement across Scotland.

Priority 2 within the Heart Disease Action Plan makes clear our commitment to developing nationally agreed pathways of care for all cardiac conditions.

This work is underway. It is led by our recently appointed Heart Disease Improvement Coordinator, who is engaging with clinical colleagues across Scotland to understand service provision, identify needs and collate examples of good practice to inform this programme of work.

Employers with ten or more staff are eligible to participate in the workplace asymptomatic testing programme. The programme allows participating organisations to offer COVID-19 testing to any individuals who work at the location, including employees, volunteers, contractors and agency staff. Agencies which meet the criteria can also enrol in the programme to provide their staff with tests. This includes agencies providing staff to the health and social care sectors.

If an employer or agency does not provide workplace testing, lateral flow device test kits are widely available to individuals through the universally accessible testing offer. Kits can be collected from test sites, pharmacies and local authority collection points, or ordered online for home delivery.

The Scottish Government already provides grant funding support for SME businesses to replace fossil fuel heating systems with zero emissions systems. Since 2020, the SME loan/cashback scheme has been offering interest-free loans of up to £100,000 with a 75% cashback grant of up to £10,000 towards the costs of a renewables heating system and a further 30% cashback grant up to £10,000 for energy efficiency measures.

We have committed to continuing our SME loan and cashback (or grant replacement) schemes until at least 2023.

Councils must give due regard to the statutory guidance published by the Scottish Government in contracting for retrofit and energy efficiency projects. We would expect councils to apply relevant and proportionate selection criteria to establish the suitability of bidders as part of their procurement. These are the minimum standards or requirements that bidders must meet in order to progress. For example by establishing their suitability; financial standing; and their technical and professional ability to undertake the necessary works.

Councils must clearly target fuel poor areas as part of projects funded through our Area Based Schemes (ABS). For example by showing that a project is located in one of the most deprived 25% of areas by SIMD classification. Councils are expected to obtain the necessary information to confirm that relevant households and properties are also eligible for grant-in-aid based upon the guidance provided by the Scottish Government.

When applying for support through the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund projects are required to provide a variety of information including a financial model, a feasibility study, project programme and risk register.

Details of the grant allocations and outturns for each council as part of our Area Based Schemes programme since 2013 are published on the Scottish Government website:

Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland: area-based schemes - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Information about the previous Home Insulation Scheme (HIS) and the Universal Home Insulation Scheme (UHIS) from 2008 to 2013 is available from the Energy Saving Trust website.

Home+Energy+Programmes+Summary+Report+20092013.pdf (energysavingtrust.org.uk)

Further to the answer given to question S6W-04701, I can confirm that one of the seven clinicians who undertook the peer review was an experienced Haematology consultant who has expertise in the care of haematological malignancies and the associated protocols.

The current Scottish Stroke Care Standards are available at the following link ( https://www.strokeaudit.scot.nhs.uk/index.html)x . At present, they largely relate to acute stroke care.

However, the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme also includes performance targets which reflect access to rehabilitation in inpatient settings, intensity of provision in stroke units and access to stroke specialist Early Supported Discharge and community teams. The Rehabilitation Sub-Group of the Stroke National Advisory Committee is currently considering future updates to measure rehabilitation service delivery, patient outcomes and experiences within the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme report.

The Scottish Stroke Care Standards can be found here: ( https://www.strokeaudit.scot.nhs.uk/index.html ). The current standard relating to brain imaging already sets out that 90% of patients should receive this within 12 hours of arrival at first hospital, unless there is a documented contraindication.

The Scottish Stroke Care Standards are regularly reviewed in line with current evidence and updated guidelines. We monitor the implementation of these standards through the Scottish Stroke Care Audit to ensure that stroke patients in Scotland are receiving high quality care.

The Scottish Government regularly engages with COSLA on air quality matters. However there have been no recent discussions on the specific issue of local authority powers to tackle vehicle idling, as the authorities themselves are best placed to make decisions on implementation.