Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03940 on 2 November 2021.

NHS Scotland already utilises an electronic prescription message between GP practices and community pharmacies which runs in parallel with paper prescriptions. However, the use of paper prescriptions is still a necessity at this stage as a legal requirement.

The Scottish Government has commissioned NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) to take forward a number of digital priorities in response to COVID. This national programme includes investing in development of a new ePrescribing and eDispensing pathway by enabling the use of advanced electronic signatures in primary care and addressing the need for an end-to-end digital solution that will support replacement of the paper prescription from all community settings with a digital solution. The programme recognises that electronic prescribing will help some vulnerable sections of society, but we must also ensure others are not disadvantaged and the solution adopted should address patient needs including digital exclusion. It is difficult to be precise on timescales at present but significant progress on the technical and process models continues at pace and the Scottish Government is committed to deliver a solution through this programme.

Our refreshed Digital Health and Care Strategy includes a clear approach on how we will empower the public to manage their health and wellbeing through digital means. This work will look to give greater access to things like health records and being able to manage prescriptions online.

In addition, patients who have a long-term condition can access the ‘Medicines: Care and Review Service’ at their local community pharmacy. It promotes a partnership approach between the pharmacist, the patient and their GP practice. Patients with stable long-term conditions can receive serial prescriptions for a duration of 24, 48 or 56 weeks which are dispensed in regular intervals by the pharmacy and remove the need to request regular repeat prescriptions.

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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03618 on 8 November 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 has never received an offer from the UK Government to adapt its app to support our needs. It is appropriate that we design a scheme that is right for Scotland, works in our context, and offers us the flexibility to adapt to our changing circumstances.

Health Boards have already commenced recruitment activity to meet the commitment to recruit an additional 1,000 Health and Care Support staff at AfC Bands 2, 3 & 4 to provide additional capacity across a variety of services both in the community and in hospital settings. Funding of up to £15 million is being provided in-year to fully fund all costs associate with recruitment to these posts. We are directly supporting boards to fill these posts as quickly as possible within that time frame, through securing an accelerated pre-employment process and supporting the delivery of employability initiatives such as the ‘Skills Boost for Health Care’ training for staff new to health and care.

Public Health Scotland have confirmed that a hot debrief is guidance and not mandatory. The Incident Management Team therefore did not completed a hot debrief relating to the COVID-19 outbreak at the Nike Conference. Public Health Scotland have, however, published the Incident Management Team Report relating to this event. Learning around Covid-19 is a continuous process and findings such as this report inform the wider response to the pandemic in Scotland.

Correspondence from MSPs should routinely be answered by Scottish Government Cabinet Secretaries and Ministers. The Health and Social Care portfolio has experienced a huge and unprecedented increase in correspondence over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. This has impacted particularly on the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and the Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport. The pandemic saw a 2700% increase in volume of correspondence for these portfolios and the two portfolios combined currently deal with 49% of all correspondence across the Scottish Government.

To enable MSPs to receive timely responses in these exceptional circumstances, much of the correspondence previously signed by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport is being reviewed on their behalf by Scottish Government Deputy Directors. This arrangement is under continuous review and Ministerial Responses will resume as soon as volume and circumstances allow. The Scottish Government will keep MSPs informed of any further changes to this process.

The Scottish Government aim to respond to all ministerial correspondence within 20 working days. Correspondence from MSPs to Scottish Ministers is routinely answered by a Cabinet Secretary or Minister.

Public Health Scotland's weekly respiratory report indicates that up to week 42 (week ending 24th October 2021) a total of 944,989 individuals, among different eligible cohorts, have received influenza vaccine. This season a combination of data recording systems has been used to generate the influenza vaccine uptake data as part of the Vaccine Transformation Programme (VTP) and the adoption of new systems for the scheduling, booking and recording of influenza vaccination. Thus, the data presented for season 2021-22 are not directly comparable to influenza vaccine uptake in previous seasons.

Although it is not possible to directly compare with previous seasons, the data indicated that the overall influenza vaccine uptake for Scotland in 2020-21 was higher than 2019-20 season in most eligible cohorts; notably for those aged 65 years and over with an overall uptake of 79.7 % compared to 74 % in the 2019-20.

On the week commencing 25 October we launched booster campaign activity to support those aged between 60 and 69 and those 16+ with an ongoing health condition who have started to receive their COVID-19 Vaccine Booster appointments.

The main element of the media campaign which includes TV, Radio, Press, Digital and PR activity started 1 November with a generic call to action.

From 15 November, all media activity will direct target audiences to the appointment booking portal. This campaign is covering 91% of the adult population with an average opportunity to see/hear of 21.

The campaign was supported by a wide range of other communications and engagement activity to raise awareness and encourage uptake in the general population as well as specific groups.

The cost of funding a Scottish domiciled student from entry to university through to graduation is set out in the first table. The cost of funding a student from the Rest of the UK (RUK) from entry to university through to graduation is set out in the second table.