Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03321 on
‎ 18 October 2021. 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

The Scottish Government advises anyone who has experienced domestic abuse to report crimes committed against them. Domestic abuse is a heinous crime and we remain absolutely committed to working with justice partners to ensure that they have the most effective tools at their disposal to ensure that perpetrators receive a robust response and are held to account for their actions.

The Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 (the ‘Act’) came into effect in April 2019 and provides the police with additional powers to take action against those who abuse their partner or ex-partner. As highlighted in the publication, in 2020-21, 1,581 charges were reported under the Act, with 95 percent resulting in court proceedings being raised.

Lastly, as part of the Programme for Government, we will invest £100 million over the next three years to support frontline services so that women and children can safely access the support they need and to focus on prevention of violence against women and girls from school onwards.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03321 on
‎ 18 October 2021. 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

NHS National Procurement has confirmed that arrangements have been made to make Ronapreve available in Scottish Hospitals.

Commissioning guidance was issued to Health Boards on 17 September, and work is ongoing to ensure that Ronapreve can be administered as quickly as possible where clinically appropriate.

We remain on track to increase the number of GPs working in Scotland by at least 800 by 2027. We have taken a number of actions, including increasing the number of medical places at universities, and taking steps to encourage medical graduates to choose general practice. To that end, between 2015-16 and 2021-22 the Scottish Government will have increased the annual intake of medical places in Scottish universities from 848 to 1117 (269 places, a 32% increase). The majority of these new places are focused on general practice.

By increasing the amount of undergraduate curriculum that is delivered in general practice to 25%. We are confident increased exposure to general practice will encourage more students to train as GPs. With an increase of 89 GPs in 2019/20 we are now confident we are starting to see the positive impact of these actions.

Number of GPs working in Scotland since 2017

This government has seen an 87.7% increase in consultant oncologists and we’ve increased consultant radiologists by 57.4% (September 2006 – June 2021). We recognise the immense pressure our NHS workforce has been under in response to the pandemic and we are working to provide a sustainable workforce. The National Cancer Plan is backed by £114.5 million and has the potential to provide significant financial support to address cancer workforce shortages.

As part of the work of the National Cancer Recovery Group (NCRG), we are currently carrying out an exercise to identify workforce requirements to help inform wider planning discussions. This will look at roles specifically related to cancer.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government and would require to be obtained directly from Health Boards.

The COVID pandemic has inevitably affected A&E attendance and the pressure is being felt across the UK. While Scotland continues to have the best performing A&E in the whole of the UK, our NHS staff are facing unprecedented pressures as they work tirelessly and consistently to respond to the pandemic whilst continuing to provide vital treatment and optimal patient care.

Demand on NHS Highland services has been, and continues to be challenged. This is largely due to limited bed capacity due to staffing pressures, and an increase in attendances to A&E by those who are much sicker and require higher levels of care.

We are in daily contact with NHS Highland and continue to support improvement work within the Board and the Health & Social Care Partnerships to minimise delays for patients no matter where they are in the system. We also invested an additional £12 million in the summer to support improvements, NHS Highland has used its allocation to increase capacity in community hospitals.

Additionally, to help alleviate pressures across the whole system we announced a substantial new investment of over £300 million in hospital and community care to support the NHS and social care system over winter. The new funding will support a range of measures to maximise capacity in hospitals and primary care, reduce delayed discharges, improve pay for social care staff, and ensure those in the community who need support receive effective and responsive care, helping to improve waiting times for people attending A&E.

Ambulances are not single-crewed other than in exceptional circumstances, such as short notice unplanned staff absences, and every effort is made to double crew ambulances through rostered and relief staff, overtime or our bank staff.

Unfortunately as a result of COVID-19 there has been occasions where single crewing has had to be used as a result of late notice staff abstractions, however we are continuing to work with the Scottish Ambulance Service to reduce this where possible.

The following table outlines the number of single crew shifts, not ambulances each year since 2017/18.

The Scottish Government recognises vaccines approved for use in the UK regardless of where they were administered to determine whether a person has completed their primary dose or whether they require additional doses to be fully vaccinated.

Those who have been vaccinated out-with the Common Travel Area (CTA) should obtain proof of their vaccination status from the country they received their vaccination. For domestic certification purposes, we will accept proof of vaccination from across the UK and Crown Dependencies as well as from members of the EU Digital Covid Certificate Scheme.

For those who have proof of vaccination status from out with the CTA and the EU, domestic certification rules for international visitors will align with current border rules. Visitors from international countries out-with the CTA and EU scheme will require to provide the same proof of vaccination status that is accepted for entry to the UK.

Those who have received a final dose of a UK approved vaccine in Canada at least 14 days before travel are currently recognised as fully vaccinated and can use their proof of vaccination for domestic certification purposes. More information on this can be found at: Coronavirus (COVID-19): international travel and managed isolation (quarantine) - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .