- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to increase the number of undergraduate medical school places.
Answer
As part of the 2021-22 Programme for Government (PfG), the Scottish Government committed to increasing the number of available medical school places by 500 over the lifetime of this Parliament. As part of this commitment we are also doubling the number of places reserved for widening access students from 60 to 120.
We are in the process of delivering this commitment following the creation of 200 additional places which have been distributed between Scotland’s 5 medical schools in the academic years 21-22 and 22-23. The next tranche of 100 will be delivered in 23-24, and the allocation of the final 200 places remain under consideration.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has developed support for international health and social care workers, such as Objective Standard Clinical Examination (OSCE) training, in order to help them gain regulatory body registration in Scotland.
Answer
NHS Education for Scotland (NES) was commissioned by the Scottish Government in late 2021 to develop Objective Structured Clinical Examination(OSCE) training provision and this training is available to all international nurses working across NHS Scotland as required for NMC registration.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has (a) reviewed any wider opportunities available to access a career in nursing and midwifery, as an Allied Health Professional (AHP) or in Health Care Science (HCS) and (b) explored the potential to further increase the use of approaches such as the Open University and apprenticeship models.
Answer
The Scottish Government continues to work closely with partners including Higher Education Institutions, Health Boards, Skills Development Scotland, and the Scottish Funding Council on skills development, employability and widening access to NHS Scotland careers, including the development of progressive career opportunities for existing staff and the development of apprenticeship models to provide an ‘earn and learn’ pathway.
Career pathways are actively promoted to staff and those who may be interested in an NHS career, through NHS Scotland Careers website and social media accounts. This has included the development of resources such as the Shape Your Future – Find the Career For You in NHS Scotland.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has set new international recruitment targets (a) focusing on key areas of shortage and (b) directly supporting key commitments set out in their NHS Recovery Plan, including meeting its anticipated 1% net growth, and, if so, what these targets are.
Answer
I refer the Member to my statements in Parliament on 5 October 2021 and 4 October 2022 where I set out details of new international recruitment targets. Boards undertake this recruitment focussing on key areas with current vacancies.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the delivery of the commitment made in the Health and social care: integrated workforce plan to "design and oversee work to obtain a national picture of workforce planning capacity, methodology and capability in Local Authorities/ Health and Social Care Partnerships for planning social care services".
Answer
The Scottish Government has engaged directly with representatives from NHS Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) to consider workforce planning capacity and capability across services. We remain committed to building a culture of continuous learning and improvement in workforce planning, including through the guidance we developed to support the development of health board and HSCP three-year workforce plans. We have been exploring, with stakeholders, formal qualification and accreditation opportunities, we continue to take forward these discussions with partners in further and higher education, alongside the provision of in-house training.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has developed an engagement programme across the health and social care workforce to inform a set of shared values.
Answer
As part of Leading to Change, the National Leadership Development Programme, we have been running a series of engagement events for the health, social work and social care sectors to promote compassionate and inclusive leadership at all levels and create an open and welcoming culture that will enable people to thrive.
Details of the events can be found here: Events | Leading to Change | Leadership Development | NHS Scotland
An update on the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care will be published later this year.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 23 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what work it has undertaken with the Neurological Alliance of Scotland and other stakeholders to explore the potential of national care frameworks and how these can inform neurological care and support.
Answer
Scottish Government has previously invested £180,000 in the development of a national care framework for Huntington’s Disease, with a view to the potential adoption of this approach in other neurological conditions. Our National Advisory Committee for Neurological Conditions will consider whether development of frameworks for additional neurological conditions should be prioritised as part of our ongoing implementation of the commitments within the Neurological Care and Support: Framework for Action 2020-2025 .
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 23 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what support it has given to (a) integration authorities and (b) the NHS to test generic/neurology community-based, multi-disciplinary team models, and what evaluation it has undertaken of this.
Answer
In 2019, we published a Neurological Care and Support – a National Framework for Action 2020-25 , with a vision to ensure everyone with a neurological condition can access the care and support they need to live well, on their own terms.
Since October 2020 we have we have awarded £2.1 million across three rounds of funding to 35 projects by NHS Boards, Health and Social Care Partnerships and third sector organisations working to achieve better outcomes for people living with neurological conditions.
I further refer the member to the Neurological Care And Support: A Framework For Action 2020-2025 – Midpoint Progress Report , which contains case study examples of innovative projects we have funded which test and evaluate new models of care. A list of funded projects is also available on the Scottish Government website: Neurological Framework Funding: list of organisations funded - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 23 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to improve the recording of neurological conditions in an individual’s routine health and care records, to ensure that any such conditions are visible to appropriate services.
Answer
On 13 December 2022 we published a report of the estimated prevalence of 28 specific neurological conditions: Neurological Conditions: estimating the prevalence in Scotland of selected conditions using GP and Hospital Admissions datasets - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .
The work was initiated by the Scottish Government and supported by Public Health Scotland (PHS). Estimates were derived from GP recorded diagnoses and hospital admissions data.
The report addresses the commitment in the Neurological Care and Support: Framework for Action 2020-2025 to develop more accurate epidemiological data.
Undertaking this work has enabled us to begin looking at how neurological diagnoses are recorded in health and care records, and how we gather and report prevalence.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 23 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken with NHS Scotland's Information Services Division to ensure a cohesive approach to capturing the needs of people with a neurological condition.
Answer
In 2019, we published a Neurological Care and Support – a National Framework for Action 2020-25 , with a vision to ensure everyone with a neurological condition can access the care and support they need to live well, on their own terms.
Commitment 12 of the Framework aims to gather better data regarding neurological conditions. The Scottish Epilepsy Register project, funded through the Framework, is focussed on improving data collection and patient safety and driving up standards of care. We are exploring with NHS National Services Scotland proposals to scale up and consolidate the work of the Register, which may ultimately serve as a replicable model for other neurological conditions.
Scottish Burden of Disease data is also available on a number of neurological conditions including epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease: Scottish Burden of Disease (shinyapps.io)
I further refer the member to answer S6W-13707 and S6W-13708 on 23 January 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