Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-08162

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 April 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 12 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the publication of the NHS Workforce Strategy, what level of additional staffing it considers will be needed by Scotland’s genetic laboratories in future years to ensure that patients can benefit from advances in precision treatments, and what steps it is taking to recruit and retain laboratory staff with the necessary skills to undertake, report and advise multi-disciplinary oncology teams on genetic test findings.

The Genetic Laboratory Major Service review considered the workforce requirements for our future genomics capabilities in NHS Scotland. A link to the report is available here:https://www.nss.nhs.scot/specialist-healthcare/specialist-services/genetic-and-molecular-pathology-laboratories/

In line with the recommendations from the Major Service Review, the NSD Transformation Team will consider the workforce planning requirements to implement the recommendations from the report in developing the action plan.

Over the coming months we will be expanding the membership of our Scottish Genomics Leadership Group(SGLG) and relevant work stream to include a wider pool of stakeholders than those currently on the SGLG. This expanded structure will consider the recommendations from the Major Service Review as well as considerations for further genomics expansion.

One of the workstreams will lead on workforce planning and will be done in partnership with relevant Trade Union representatives.

Question reference: S6W-08165

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 April 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-03514 by Humza Yousaf on 27 October 2021, whether the National Services Division review of NHS Scotland’s genomics services has been completed; (a) whether and (b) what recommendations have been made to the Scottish Genomics Leadership Group, and what actions will be taken on the basis of any recommendations to ensure that appropriate planning and decision-making processes are in place for genetic testing availability in Scotland.

The NHS National Services Division (NSD) commissioning team have completed a Major Service Review of the current Genomics service. The final report has been shared with NHS Board Chief Executives, the Scottish Genomics Leadership Group, Trade Union representative, Medical and Laboratory Directors for the boards that host the Genomic Laboratories, the document is now available on the (NSS)NSD website at the following link:https://www.nss.nhs.scot/specialist-healthcare/specialist-services/genetic-and-molecular-pathology-laboratories/

All of the recommendations from the report were put to the Scottish Genomics Leadership Group on the 24 February 2022.

The NSD Transformation Team which will become operational in June 2022 will develop an action plan for the implementation of the recommendations from the Review

Question reference: S6O-01059

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it last corresponded with Poppyscotland regarding support for veterans.

Question reference: S6W-08129

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 April 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 3 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of (a) children and (b) adults diagnosed with cystic fibrosis saw a psychosocial professional within the last 12 months at their annual review, as set out in the NHS service specifications for cystic fibrosis care.

People of all ages in Scotland living with Cystic Fibrosis have access to Specialist Cystic Fibrosis Centres. These include a Clinical Psychologist who forms part of the multidisciplinary team supporting the patient and their family.

Patient referrals will be made to the psychologist for in-patients, out-patients and those whom the multi-disciplinary team have specific concerns about. National Services Scotland- who commission adult CF Services- receive data about the work carried out by clinical psychologists within the annual reports for each Adult Cystic Fibrosis Centre. This data, however, does not specifically state how many patients were seen by the psychologist at their annual review and instead relates to referrals and care episodes.

Paediatric Cystic Fibrosis Services are commissioned and delivered by Local Health Boards, therefore information is not held centrally on the percentage of children who have seen a psychosocial professional at their 12 month review.

Question reference: S6W-07489

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 March 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 26 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to increase the number of lung cancer nurse specialists (LCNSs), in light of the target recommended by the Lung Cancer Clinical Expert Group of 80 new lung cancer patients to every whole-time equivalent LCNS.

Question reference: S6W-07492

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 March 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 26 April 2022

Question reference: S6W-07491

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 March 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of the reported shortage of lung cancer nurse specialists on the (a) treatment, (b) outcomes and (c) quality of life for lung cancer patients.

Information on the number of Clinical Nurse Specialists by specialist cancer fields is not held centrally.

However, we recognise the scale of the challenge facing Health Boards across Scotland. We are working closely with partners to accelerate domestic and international recruitment to Scotland. New investment of £300m has helped services deal with system pressures over winter and the NHS Recovery Plan, backed by over £1bn, has introduced a range of direct workforce investments and new measures to support Boards’ capacity for both domestic and international recruitment.

Overall NHS staff and nursing staff levels are currently at a record high, following ten consecutive years of NHS Scotland workforce growth. We are investing £11m over the next five years in new national and international recruitment campaigns and have established a national Centre for Workforce Supply to provide labour market intelligence. We are also recruiting at least 200 registered nurses from overseas, with funding of £4.5m available to Health Boards to take this forward.

Our latest DCE lung cancer campaign entitled - ‘Settling In’ – was launched in May 2021 with the aim of increasing awareness of the early signs of lung cancer and encouraging people with possible symptoms to contact their GP practice. Almost two-thirds (64%) of those who saw the campaign did something as a result, including looking out for symptoms and deciding to go to their GP practice with possible signs. As committed to in our NHS Recovery Plan, a new early cancer diagnosis vision for Scotland is also being developed to direct early diagnosis efforts over the coming years, including that of lung.

Question reference: S6W-07490

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 March 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in the (a) west, (b) north, (c) south and (d) east of Scotland to increase the number of lung cancer nurse specialists.

Question reference: S6W-07675

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 March 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 20 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what help is available to children and young people who have been waiting 52 weeks or more for treatment on Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) waiting lists, in light of reported figures from Public Health Scotland stating that there were 1,570 such children in the month ending 31 December 2021.

Long waiting times for treatment are unacceptable and we remain committed to meet the standard that 90% of patients begin treatment within 18 weeks of referral. This is why we have allocated £40 million to NHS Boards to improve CAMHS in the last financial year. £4.25m of that allocation was directly focussed on offering treatment to those already on CAMHS waiting lists, with a view to clearing all backlogs by March 2023. Whilst Boards continue to respond creatively to treat significant numbers of children and young people, their priority is to ensure that emergency and urgent cases are seen, and this has regrettably meant longer waits for some.

Waiting lists are managed locally by individual Health Boards. However, the Scottish Government has issued key principles for Health Boards to shape their policies for managing waiting lists. These set out our expectation that patients on the waiting list, and where appropriate their families, are kept informed of their situation; that those waiting the longest should be contacted first; and that support and personalised, meaningful signposting should also be provided to the patient and their families, with informed consent, to access other services within the children and young people's service network, in cases where families' needs are best met elsewhere.

Additionally, to enhance the support that is available, in the last financial year we provided local authorities with an additional £15 million to fund over 230 new and enhanced community-based mental health supports and services for children and young people. This financial year, we will issue a further £15 million to councils to fund the continuation of these supports.

This funding gives local authorities the flexibility to implement supports on the basis of local priorities and to make services available to children and young people who are awaiting CAMHS treatment or for whom CAMHS is not suitable. Councils have advised us that the community-based supports have started receiving referrals from CAMHS.

The services include mental health support for LGBTQI+ children and young people in Glasgow; family mediation and counselling services in Dundee; online self-directed support and counselling in Aberdeenshire and Bereavement and Loss support in the Scottish Borders. Establishing these services is a significant step forward in supporting the mental health of our children and young people, making sure they receive the help they need when they need it.

Question reference: S6W-07673

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 March 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 20 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people are currently waiting for a neurodivergent assessment as part of a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) waiting list.

This data is not centrally available; aggregated data for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) Waiting Times is sent to Public Health Scotland (PHS) from each NHS Board. It does not contain explicit information on the type of assessment or treatment children and young people are waiting for. It reports on the number of referrals for young people to CAMHS; numbers waiting to start treatment and total waiting; not accepted for treatment from referral and Did Not Attend status numbers for 1st contact appointments; and the time between referral and first treatment.

The CAMHS statistics capture children and young people who meet the CAMHS criteria. Children and young people who are waiting for a neurodevelopmental assessment but do not meet the CAMHS criteria are not reported in these statistics.

PHS are developing a patient-level dataset to provide detail for these aggregate CAMHS statistics. This Child, Adolescent and Psychological Therapies National Dataset (CAPTND) will contain reason for referral to CAMHS, which will include assessments for neurodevelopmental support needs where this is included in the care plan.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with Boards to implement the National Neurodevelopmental Specification: Principles and Standards of Care for Children and Young People, published in September 2021, which specifies service standards that all children’s services should follow, to ensure access to support is effective and consistent across Scotland.

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