Chamber and committees

NHS Scotland Guidance on ‘outpatient and primary care consultations during community circulation of COVID-19’ was issued to all Health Boards in September 2020.

The full guidance is available at:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-outpatient-and-primary-care-consultations---principles/

This guidance states that when appropriate, patients can be accompanied by a dedicated person. This includes where a person has a learning disability.

Since July, healthcare staff in specialist oncology wards, long term care of the elderly wards and long stay old age psychiatry and learning disability wards have been offered weekly PCR tests. Testing of asymptomatic healthcare staff in an area where there is an outbreak of COVID-19, in a non COVID-19 ward, has also been in place since July.

In line with the clinical review of our testing strategy, the Scottish Government announced in Parliament on 25 November the roll-out of routine twice weekly testing for all patient-facing Healthcare Workers, in hospitals, Covid-19 Assessment Centres and the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS).

Testing is only one measure of protection against COVID-19, alongside a strong emphasis on robust infection prevention and control measures, including the use of PPE, the extended use of face masks, physical distancing and good hygiene.

The Scottish Government has undertaken a review of the status of drive-in events, including drive-in cinemas and drive-thru events, in light of representations that these should be permitted in level 3 areas. Following the review, the Scottish Government has concluded that the position on drive-in events (including drive-thru events) should remain unchanged, permitted up to and including level 2 areas and not permitted in level 3 or 4 areas.

The review identified that drive-ins carry particular risks around the provision of toilets and refreshments; risks around the potential for people to travel to attend events out-with their Local Authority area; and risks around compliance with the guidance against car sharing. Level 3 is characterised by an increased incidence of the virus, with multiple clusters and increased community transmission. There are therefore greater public health costs from not restricting activities as the virus would continue and accelerate its spread, ultimately resulting in direct harms to health. In order to prevent further increases in transmission and a move to level 4, activities need to be sufficiently restricted in level 3 to reduce spread of the virus. Therefore, while acknowledging the economic and social benefits of drive-in events, the Scottish Government concluded that the existing restrictions on these events in level 3 and level 4 areas should not be changed.

I refer the member to the answer to the answer to S5W-33749 on 4 December 2020 which highlights the publication of Making Scotland’s Future: A Recovery Plan For Manufacturing for consultation on 4th December 2020.

The consultation on the Recovery Plan has been extended to 12 February 2021, due to early feedback from industry stakeholders. A final Plan, consolidating all feedback, will be published in March 2021.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office (CSO) operates open competitive grant and fellowship schemes providing opportunities for funding for applied research across the wide range of health conditions and public health and care challenges in Scotland, which can include applications for research on Mesothelioma. Applications submitted to these schemes are subject to independent expert peer review with funding recommendations made by independent expert committees. Currently, CSO is supporting (with a total of about £44k from CSO), along with NHS Education for Scotland, a three year postdoctoral clinical lectureship investigating a new avenue for potential treatment of Mesothelioma.

Personal assistants in the social care sector will be in scope of the pro rata £500 payment being made to those NHS and social care staff who have been employed since 17 March 2020. Full details of the categories of workers who are eligible for the payment are set out in the Scottish Government's announcement .

A budget of £620 million was allocated to financial transactions, which can only be used for loans or equity investment in entities outside of the public sector, at the start of the year in the 2020-21 Scottish Government Budget. This comprised the full £606 million budget allocation from H M Treasury supplemented by a small carry forward from the previous financial year.

In line with usual practice, budgets are revised and re-allocated across the year in accordance with changing circumstances. The financial transactions budget post budget revisions so far this year is £603 million after standard reprioritisation of planned and emerging underspends in the Autumn Budget Revision. Final updates will be made as part of the Spring Budget Revision in early 2021.

Health boards have been routinely testing healthcare workers in key areas (oncology, long stay elderly care and mental health wards where the length of stay is over three months) since 8 July.

The Scottish Government has been working closely with Health Boards to develop key data on the testing of NHS staff. This data is collected by the Scottish Government at board level only and includes all eligible staff across these three key areas. It is not collected by hospital or role.

This data was published for the first time by Public Health Scotland (PHS) on Wednesday 18 November and included the number of eligible staff, staff tested, positive results and positivity rates. Subsequent weekly publications, starting from Wednesday 25 November, will include this data and also the number of staff who have declined, or not tested (for operational reasons or with no reason given).

Data published on 18 November shows 6,791 healthcare workers were tested.

Data published on 25 November shows 6,495 healthcare workers were tested and 161 actively declined.

Data published on 2 December shows 6,731 healthcare workers were tested and 151 actively declined.

Data published on 9 December shows 6,564 healthcare workers were tested and 190 actively declined.

Data is available from PHS COVID-19 Statistical Report - Management Information Statistics at: COVID-19 statistical report 9 December 2020 - Data & intelligence from PHS (isdscotland.org)

The Rapid Research in COVID-19 call was launched on 25 March 2020. At that time there was little recognition of the possible longer-term health impacts of COVID-19 infection and the call did not specifically reference long-COVID.

Nevertheless, some projects funded as a result of that call are likely to provide evidence helpful to understanding the longer-term effects of COVID-19 infection including the following projects in particular:

COV/DUN/20/04 Identifying the burden of post-Covid-19 lung disease in the UK

COV/EDI/20/10 Inflammation in Covid-19: Exploration of Critical Aspects of Pathogenesis (ICECAP)

COV/GLA/20/05 Cardiac Imaging in SARS Coronavirus disease-19 (CISCO-19)

COV/QMU/20/04 Supporting recovery from illness experienced in isolation due to a pandemic context: survey and development of recommendations for practice

Details of all the projects funded through the Rapid Research in COVID-19 call are available from the Chief Scientist Office website:

https://www.cso.scot.nhs.uk/rapid-research-in-covid-19-programme/

Unlike previous funds which have been targeted towards specific groups or sectors impacted by COVID-19, this fund seeks to empower local authorities to direct additional financial support to specific groups or sectors within the business community where this is required. As such councils will have their own distinct application processes which will open at different times and so I am unable to provide a specific date when the discretionary fund will open.

The Cabinet Secretary for Finance has announced an additional £185 million package of support for businesses which included £19 million in funding specifically for taxi and private hire vehicle drivers. This fund will be available in January.