Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to working with Health Boards to improve the administration of medicines by ensure that Hospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (HEPMA) is implemented across Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S5W-26471 on 3 December 2019. 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.

A national Hospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (HEPMA) Oversight Board has been established to monitor timelines and milestones of Health Board implementations. HEPMA has already been successfully implemented in four Health boards across Scotland. The Board plan to provide an overview on progress across Scotland by the end of the first quarter of 2020.

The Review is being independently chaired by John Scott QC so it is for him to determine how to take forward the work of the Review – this includes how submissions to the Review are handled.

NHS Dumfries and Galloway's cardiology service has a small volume of activity and operates with a visiting workforce. As a result there will be occasions when there are spikes in waiting times however performance has consistently remained within the expected levels for outpatient appointments. In the last year performance has remained at or above 97% of patients receiving an appointment within 12 weeks from referral.

Scottish Government Officials have regular contact with NHS Dumfries and Galloway on their waiting times performance and we have provided £2.65m of additional funding to the Board this financial year to support them to build on their current performance levels.

I refer the member to my answer to question S5W-26377 on 27 November 2019. 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 .

Following discussions between Scottish Government officials, academics and the Scottish Screening Committee, a pilot proposal for a feasibility study on lung cancer screening has been submitted for funding and a decision is expected in December 2019.

We are unaware of when the UK National Screening Committee will form a view on lung cancer screening but we understand that they will review the evidence on lung cancer screening again after the results of the NELSON randomised lung cancer screening trial are published.

The total spend on the "Quit your way Scotland" campaign which ran in 2018, was £608,198. Spend from this campaign was frontloaded in Financial Year 2017-18:

2017-2018 - £552,975

2018-2019 - £55,223

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-26424 on 27 November 2019. 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 .

On behalf of the National Advisory Committee for Chronic Pain (NACCP), the Deputy Chief Medical Officer commissioned Scottish NHS Boards to provide information about the quantity of different healthcare professionals working within specialist pain services across Scotland, as well as qualitative information about recruitment/ retention challenges and succession planning for this workforce group. As the survey and subsequent report were commissioned and produced by the Scottish Government, any associated costs were absorbed internally.

The survey results informed the report “Findings of Scottish Specialist Pain Workforce Study” which was published with the June 2019 minutes of the National Advisory Committee for Chronic Pain (NACCP). Sessions, rather than whole-time equivalent (WTE) are the basis of consultant contracts and job planning, and thus for understanding available workforce consultant figures show sessions rather than WTE. This allowed a more meaningful response, reflecting actual hours in the pain service. The report also shows the WTE of other healthcare staff working in pain clinics, broken down by discipline where able to do so, in accordance with Data Protection legislation.

The Scottish Government intend to publish all the returns made by NHS Boards to the survey early in the new year. This will be subject to, and in accordance with, Data Protection legislation.