Chamber and committees

Advanced Nurse Practitioners are employed within a range of settings within Primary Care.

The 2023 General Practice Workforce Survey ( https://turasdata.nes.nhs.scot/data-and-reports/official-workforce-statistics/all-official-statistics-publications/general-practice-workforce-survey-2023/annual-report/?pageid=10709 ), reports that there are 553.7 whole-time equivalent (WTE) Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANPs) employed by and working in General Practices.

Alongside this, the ‘Primary Care Improvement Plans - Implementation Progress Summary’ ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/primary-care-improvement-plans-summary-implementation-progress-march-2023/ ) reports that a total of 219.9 WTE ANPs employed by Health Boards within Urgent Care services.

The latest NHS Scotland Workforce data published by NES ( https://turasdata.nes.nhs.scot/data-and-reports/official-workforce-statistics/all-official-statistics-publications/05-march-2024-workforce/ ) shows that there are 4.8 WTE ANPs employed by the Scottish Ambulance Service, as well as 1.0 WTE ANP employed by NHS 24.

NHS Education for Scotland (NES) support the development and delivery of healthcare education and training for the NHS, health and social care sector and other public bodies. This includes the development of best practice guidelines as appropriate.

With regards to GP receptionists, NES published the Core Competency Framework for General Practice Administration Staff and Practice Managers in September 2023, which includes an accompanying learning needs analysis tools and training packages.

NES published the Core Competency Framework for General Practice Administration Staff and Practice Managers in September 2023, which includes an accompanying learning needs analysis tools and training packages. The training packages include training resources specifically for GP receptionists.

The Primary Care Multi-Disciplinary team may include local physiotherapy services, community mental health services and community links worker services. These services can often be seen safely and effectively without a prior GP referral.

Through our Phased Investment Programme, which will strengthen the evidence base on the national context for implementation of primary care multidisciplinary teams, we will consider any existing barriers to effective multidisciplinary team working, including any barriers regarding patient pathways to services.

In conjunction with Scottish Government and wider stakeholders, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) are leading the development of a national midwifery career framework, although this is not a formal commissioned piece. The work is being overseen by a steering group, chaired by the Chief Midwifery Officer.

The steering group has already developed a Midwifery Preceptorship Framework to support those starting their career in the midwifery workforce and a Midwifery Development Framework Ecosystem has also been created to underpin the framework activity. A development framework for Level 2-4 Perinatal Healthcare Support Workers is nearing completion with a draft framework for consultation anticipated in April 2024.

In addition, the group will consider career development in Bands 5-9 across the four pillars of practice.

The Scottish Government has delivered the Right Care Right Place campaign during October to November 2023 which outlined the options for those seeking urgent medical care across A&E/999, General Practice and NHS 24 111. The campaign also promoted the self-help guides that are available on NHSInform.scot and messaging relating to multi-disciplinary teams within General Practices.

In addition, NHS 24 has delivered their healthy know-how campaign which promoted the option of contacting a local pharmacist, as well as our regular campaigns as to how best to use NHS services (including primary care) over the winter period.

All patients who access NHS Pharmacy First Scotland do so by self-referral. In some cases though they will have been advised to attend a community pharmacy by NHS24 or another healthcare service.

Public Health Scotland has published data on the number of patients who used NHS Pharmacy First Scotland during its first full year of operation, 2021/22. Between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022, twenty-three percent of the Scottish population (1,242,801 people) accessed Pharmacy First Scotland services at least once. This data is not published as a breakdown by Health Board. More information can be found at NHS Pharmacy First Scotland - NHS Pharmacy First Scotland - Publications - Public Health Scotland .

The figures for 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 (up to September 2023) will be published on 16 April and will be available at the same link.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many primary care appointments were cancelled in the last two years, broken down by NHS board.

The Scottish Government have recently corresponded with the Scottish Parliament’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee on this question. See Electronic patient record | Scottish Parliament Website . To support our ambitions set out in the 2021 Strategy - Digital Healthcare Scotland % (digihealthcare.scot) we will be publishing our Delivery Plan for 2024-25 in late April 2024.

The information requested on how many NHS care navigators currently work in the NHS, broken down by NHS board is not centrally available.

Information on the NHS Scotland Workforce, broken down by NHS Board, can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHS Scotland Workforce Data .