Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government provides daily information on a range of COVID-19 measures to the UK Department of Health and Social Care and to the Civil Contingencies Secretariat in the Cabinet Office to co-ordinate, inform and report on the COVID-19 position across the UK.

At the outset of the pandemic, the four Chief Medical Officers covering Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, published a list of six groups where people would be considered to be at extremely high risk of severe illness should they contract COVID-19. Clinicians can also add individuals to the list if they feel it is clinically appropriate to do so.

The UK Chief Medical Officers agreed to seek consistency across the shielding list to support patients across the UK. Having differing advice in different countries would cause confusion for patients, clinicians and support groups.

In order to ensure a consistent approach is being taken across the four nations in relation to shielding, a Review Panel has was established.

The main remit of the Review Panel is to review the evidence on potential clinical risk factors for severe illness from COVID-19; and advise the senior clinicians group on whether to add or remove specific conditions to the extremely clinically vulnerable group.

Assuming the member means FFP3 respirators, the following table shows the number of FFP3 respirators issued to each NHS Board from 1 January 2020 to 17 May 2020:

In both the private and public sectors the supply of PPE for social care is primarily the responsibility of social care providers themselves, including care homes. However, we recognise the immense pressure that global supply chains have been put under as a result of the pandemic, and therefore we established routes in March to support the sector with supplies from the national stock. These routes are the NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) Social Care PPE Triage helpline and deliveries of PPE to local Hubs in Health and Social Care Partnership areas for onward distribution or collection by social care providers.

We have not reserved a specific number of PPE items for care homes from the national stock; instead Hubs are being continually replenished on the basis of actual demand and consumption to ensure their stock levels are adequate to meet care homes’ and other social care providers’ needs, beyond providers’ own supply routes. Needs will vary across the sector and between different care homes, and this approach ensures that PPE levels through the national routes respond adequately to those needs. We are delivering between 4 and 5 million items of PPE per week from the national stock into the social care sector. Approximately 50% of these items are being consumed by care homes.

Prior to this pandemic we routinely held a pandemic stockpile of PPE, of which 25% was dedicated to the social care sector.

The PPE Health Correspondence Mailbox ( [email protected] ) has received over 2,000 emails, as at 14 May. We do not collate the data specifying the employment status of the enquirers. Enquiries to the mailbox are sent in by a range of people including care home staff, wider social care sector workforce, healthcare staff and members of the public.

The Care Inspectorate was formed on 1 April 2011 following the implementation of the Public Service Reform (Scotland) Act 2010.

Between Inspection years 2016-17 and 2019-20, 8 care homes have been had their registrations cancelled.

The Scottish Government does not hold the specific breakdown of information requested. In total, there were 20,883 individuals on the shielding list that were requested to shield as part of the bloods cancers category the question refers to. This figure excludes non-Scottish residents. A specialist group of Haematologists in Scotland convened to further inform which patients should be considered at high risk. This work concluded on 14 April.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on urgent suspected cancer referrals for April 2019. This data is not held as we do not have a two week urgent referral target as in Scotland.

The Scottish Government focuses on the 'whole cancer pathway' rather than a 2 week wait to first appointment which the 62-day standard is in place. This covers the period from urgent suspected referral from a GP or screening to start of treatment.

In Scotland the current Cancer Waiting Times standards are as follows:

31-day standard from decision to treat until first treatment for all new cancers regardless of route of referral

62-day standard from urgent referral with suspicion of cancer, including referrals from national screening programmes

To ensure patient's with worrying symptoms were approaching their GP we launched the NHS is Open campaign on 24 April 2020. Since the launch Health Boards management information shows that for the week ending 26 April, urgent suspected cancer referrals have increased and are now approximate 55% of the pre COVID-19 level. We have emphasised, and will continue to do so, that decisions around treatment should be jointly made between patients and clinicians and fully informed conversations should be had with patients about their treatment.

The safety of our essential frontline care workforce is an absolute priority, and we are continuously looking to improve the supply and distribution of PPE that is so vital in the fight against COVID-19. This is irrespective of whether those workers work in sheltered housing, retirement homes, in people’s own homes or in residential and nursing care.

In both the private and public sectors the supply of PPE for social care is primarily the responsibility of social care providers themselves. However, we recognise the immense pressure that global supply chains have been put under as a result of the pandemic, and therefore we established routes in March to support the sector with supplies from the national stock.

These routes are the NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) Social Care PPE Triage helpline and deliveries of PPE to local Hubs in Health and Social Care Partnership areas for onward distribution or collection by social care providers.
‎

The local PPE Hubs are now supporting the whole social care sector, including retirement and sheltered housing providers, with all of its PPE needs where normal supply routes have failed; and are also supporting unpaid carers and social care Personal Assistants with their PPE needs.

Retirement and sheltered housing providers can access these routes alongside other organisations and individuals providing social care support.

To date (correct as at 26 May 2020), just over 7.1 million items of PPE have been distributed to housing support services through these national routes. This is additional to the PPE that these providers have acquired through their own normal supply routes. This figure does not include the additional PPE that has also been provided to care at home staff from other providers who go into retirement and sheltered housing to provide care and support.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on patient registrations. NHS NSS holds data on where patients are registered for practice payment purposes and transfer of records.

Expectant mothers do not have to register with a GP because they are expectant; they would only need to register if they were moving area or otherwise seeking a new practice. It is probable that fewer expectant mothers have registered during the lockdown than otherwise would have as less people will have moved to new areas and those who have might have put off registration if they do not need immediate appointments with a GP.