Chamber and committees

This information is not held centrally. Further information may be sought directly from individual health boards. NHS Scotland health boards have devolved responsibilities in relation to the recruitment, retention and deployment of staff.

This information is not held centrally. Further information may be sought directly from NHS Scotland Health Boards.

Youth employment returns issued to the Scottish Government indicate that NHS Scotland Boards employed 556 new modern apprentices in the period 1 August 2014 – 31st March 2018.

Furthermore, health boards across Scotland routinely meet and exceed annual requirement to provide 1 new youth employment opportunity for every 100 employees, pursuant to Scottish Government’s National Youth Employment Strategy “Developing the Young Workforce”.

Vaccination policy in Scotland, as with the rest of the UK, is based on recommendations from the JCVI, an independent expert panel which provides impartial advice on matters relating to vaccination.

In light of the JCVI advice we introduced a shingles vaccination programme in 2013. People are eligible for the shingles vaccine in the year they turn 70 up until the age of 80. We also offer the pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine for everyone aged over 65 years.

The attached link, to ISD Scotland data, outlines the percentage of student nurses who did not complete their courses before graduation in each year since 2007 - http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/data-tables2017.asp?id=2115#2115

The following table shows the number of new cases of diabetes amongst those aged 0 to 19 in each year from 2009 to 2016.

Type 2 diabetes: Number of new cases, age 0-19

The information on waiting times for hearing aid maintenance is not held centrally. However individual Health Boards will be able to provide the member with this information.

Funding is provided to Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) by Local Authorities and Health Boards. Levels of funding are set out in the annual accounts for IJBs and published on each IJB’s website. Funding is allocated on the basis of the IJB’s strategic plan for delivery of delegated services, and is not allocated solely on the basis of population levels.

Information on the number of self-funders residing in a Care Home in Scotland is not held centrally.

Information on Care Homes in Scotland is collected via the Scottish Care Home Census for adults which takes place annually on 31 March and covers all adult care homes in Scotland registered with the Care Inspectorate. The Scottish Care Home Census collects information on the numbers of residents who are fully or partially funded but this information is only available for long-stay residents. Information on the source of funding for short-stay residents is not collected.

The care home census is incomplete as it is not a mandatory data collection. Approximately 80% of all long stay residents' records were submitted by Care Homes to the census over the time period and information on the source of funding was submitted for approximately 86% of these records in 2017. ISD and the Scottish Government work with the Care Inspectorate on an annual basis in order to improve data quality in this non-mandatory data return.

The number of mainly or wholly self-funding long stay residents in adult care homes for whom information is available is presented in a table available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (BIB. number 60065). Figures are presented as a snapshot on the census date of 31 March each year since 2007, and are presented by the Local Authority in which the Care Homes are located.

My officials meet regularly with NHS Lothian to discuss waiting times including the specialty of urology. I am aware that waiting times for urology in NHS Lothian is below the level I expect. NHS Lothian has received £3.7 million as part of the £25 million initially issued to Boards from the £50 million announced at the end of May 2018. The Board are using £162,000 for urology services to support additional outpatient activity and theatres with a further £344,000 allocated for urology diagnostic tests. This should support activity for around 1,500 patients. I expect to see improvements during this year.

The recently published programme for Government committed me to publish a plan to substantially and sustainably improve waiting time performance in the face of rising demand for services - this plan will be published shortly.

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) holds annual negotiations with Scottish Care, the representative body of the independent care home sector, to set appropriate and consistent fee levels across Scotland for publicly funded clients as part of the National Care Home Contract.

A programme of work around the reform of the NCHC undertaken by COSLA and Scottish Care has led to a significant uplift in the NCHC rate in 2018-19 of 3.39%, using detailed benchmarking data to accurately reflect the cost of providing care to care home residents.

In recognition of the costs of residential care to self funders, we have increased the Free Personal and Nursing Care payments to self-funders with inflation in 2018 to £174/week for personal care and £79/week for nursing care. We are proud of the continued provision of free personal care to over 65s, and from 1st April 2019, those under the age of 65 will also benefit from this policy.