Chamber and committees

The following tables show the number of people from Scotland who have received elective or emergency treatment as an inpatient or day case in hospitals in other parts of the UK in each year since 1999. The data across the UK is not directly comparable due to differences in data definitions. Information on the number of people from Scotland treated outside the UK is not collected centrally.

Information is provided in the following table on the number of finished admission episodes for patients resident in Scotland who have received healthcare from the NHS in England since 1999. NHS England were not able to provide figures for 2018-19 at present, these will be available mid-September.

In the forthcoming academic year (2019-20) we will be investing, through the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) so that colleges and universities can start to recruit and make arrangements for enhanced counsellor provision across Scotland. This is the first year of delivering on our commitment to the sector of more than eighty additional counsellors over the next four years. We will work closely with the SFC to monitor the delivery of this commitment on a quarterly basis throughout the academic year.

Due to the scope and timeframe of the question, the information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost as this data is not available from a single source.

The following table details the total number of jobs completed and yearly cost of the Government Car Service since 1999.

We want all children and young people, including those with ADHD, to receive the support needed to reach their full learning potential.

Education authorities and other agencies have duties under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) Act 2004 (as amended) to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils, which includes those with ADHD. Education authorities can ask other agencies (including social work services, health boards and skills development Scotland) for help in carrying out their duties under the Act.

The Waiting Times Improvement Plan clearly sets out a range of actions, both short term and longer term in order to deliver improvements this year as well as sustainable solutions for the future.

It is the role of the Scottish Government to provide policies, frameworks and resources to NHS Boards. In this context, it is a matter for NHS Boards to plan, budget for, and deliver the services required to meet the assessed needs of their resident populations - within the allocations provided.

The second phase of funding under the Waiting Times Improvement Plan was announced in July 2019. A total amount of £102 million will be invested in 2019-20, which will help to reduce waiting times across Scotland in line with the activity agreed in Health Boards Annual Operational Plans, these will be published on Health Boards websites in due course.

In terms of future sustainability we are developing a quality improvement approach which will focus on the specific actions Health Boards should be taking to improve Chronic Pain services. A recent report Chronic Pain Specialty Group shows the area’s most likely to make a difference to people presenting with Chronic Pain including workforce resourcing, exploring more sustainable service funding models, making effective information on self-management more widely available, strengthening the links between primary and secondary care, better use data to drive improvements and agreeing and sharing a common language around chronic pain that supports the principles of Realistic Medicine.

Additionally, since 2012 we have provided over £400,000 to third sector organisations to enable them to deliver services and develop resources to support people living with chronic pain in Scotland. This has resulted in improved outcomes such as the expansion of a network of Pain Association self-management groups across the country and the Navigator tool produced by Pain Concern to assist people to have open and focused conversations with healthcare professionals about what matters to them, including discussions about their prescriptions.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-24383 on 14 August 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-24383 on 14 August 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-24382 on 14 August 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

The Scottish Access Collaborative was launched in October 2017 therefore there are no minutes going back to 2015.

Both the Scottish Access Collaborative and Access Support Team sit within the same Directorate within Scottish Government which consists of performance and improvement staff who work closely with NHS Boards to ensure best practice is instilled across all hospital sites, and to share good practice and innovation across NHSScotland.

A key function of the Collaborative is the creation of national effective and clinically led specialty groups. A series of design workshops have been held for speciality groups to give their specialty area the opportunity to review their service against the Access Collaborative principles. Updates from these meetings are provided on the NES Turas Learn website. https://learn.nes.nhs.scot/