Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government places a high priority on mental health and the prevention of suicide. That is why we have a range of support on offer. In the first instance if anyone is being treated for chronic pain, and there is a change in their circumstances, they should contact the health professional or clinician handling their care to make them aware and to discuss this as soon as possible. GPs are also well placed to advise and guide people regarding appropriate treatment or management of symptoms. If people who are experiencing feelings of distress or despair wish to talk to someone out of hours, they can call NHS24 on shortcode 111 or Samaritans, who provide confidential non-judgemental emotional support, on 116 123. Both these services are available 24 hours per day. Breathing Space, a telephone and web service, also offers free and confidential advice for people experiencing low mood, depression or anxiety, whatever the cause. This service can be contacted on 0800 83 85 87, 6pm to 2am Monday to Thursday, and 6pm Friday through the weekend to 6am Monday.

In terms of waiting times, an additional £50 million has been made available to NHS Boards to improve waiting times for all stages of a person’s journey through the NHS – the outpatient consultation, any tests required and treatment. £6.2 million has been provided to NHS Lanarkshire as part of this initiative. Each Board makes the decision on where this funding is invested within their area, based on local service needs and priorities for investment.

Further to NHS Scotland's Information Services Division's consultation last year into the publication of chronic pain waiting times, it is carrying out further work over the next six months to explore the collection of waiting times data for return patients and will report on its findings later in 2018.

With regard to the reported shortage of chronic pain staff in Scotland, I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-15247 on 22 March 2018. 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 Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator’s (OSCR) has opened a formal inquiry into allegations of possible misconduct in the operation of Tayside’s endowment fund and will report in due course.

On 3 April, I became aware that, in financial year 2013-14, Trustees of NHS Tayside’s Endowment Fund had suspended their rules to allow for the retrospective approval of funding for projects. The Chief Executive of NHS Scotland and the Director of Health Finance were made aware on the same day. Immediate action was taken to independently verify the claims. On 5 April, ministerial powers were used to strengthen the Board’s leadership and the Chief Executive of NHS Scotland wrote to all NHS Board chairs to seek their explicit assurance that all charitable funds have been used appropriately.

The Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland has a statutory responsibility to monitor the use of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003. As part of meeting that responsibility, it publishes an annual overview of the use of the 2003 Act. These annual reports include statistics on the use of compulsory treatment for mental disorder in Scotland. The most recently published report is for the period 2016-2017.

The majority of provisions of the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 2015 came into force in June 2017. The 2015 Act made changes to the 2003 Act, including the strengthening of measures which promote support for decision making.

Statistical information for 2017-2018 will be provided in the Commission’s next annual monitoring report due for publication later this year.

Our mental health legislation promotes patients’ rights and provides safeguards. We will continue to work with the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland and stakeholders to promote patients’ rights more generally. Patients’ rights are a key part of our legislation and the Mental Health Strategy.

Volume 2 in the Code of Practice deals with a range of issues relating to civil compulsory powers with Chapter 1 providing an overview of the criteria which must be used before these powers can be exercised. Paragraphs 19 – 27 specifically relate to SIDMA.

The current Infrastructure Investment Plan sets out our key priorities including the delivery of 50,000 affordable homes by 2021, the expansion of early learning and childcare, the extension of broadband, as well as investment in healthcare and transport infrastructure which will benefit people all across Scotland. This is supported by our commitment to spend £4 billion on infrastructure in 2018-19.

Scotland’s third National Planning Framework (NPF3) states that a planned approach to development in the Edinburgh city region will be required to ensure that development needs are met, whilst taking into account existing and future infrastructure priorities. SESplan, the Strategic Development Plan (SDP) for the South East of Scotland, is required to take the National Planning Framework into account and to develop a plan, informed among other things, by economic forecasts and an assessment of housing need and demand. Its constituent authorities are: City of Edinburgh, West Lothian, Midlothian, East Lothian, Fife and the Scottish Borders. The first SESPlan was approved by Ministers in June 2013. SESplan is in the process of being reviewed and, following Examination, is expected to be with Ministers for approval shortly. Within this context, it is the responsibility of the local authorities to prepare local development plans for their areas to address development, housing, transport, health and other infrastructure needs, and to work with relevant agencies where appropriate, including NHS Lothian and Transport Scotland.

Transport Scotland led a Working Group comprising SESplan, SEStran and the constituent Local Authorities with the aim to assess the cumulative impacts of development on the strategic transport network within the SESplan Strategic Development Plan area, with a particular focus on cross boundary travel. This work is now informing further work by the local partners on considering links with planning process, developer contributions and potential means of delivery. Key Scottish Government transport related commitments included in the Heads of Terms for the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal are for up to £120m to support improvements to the A720 City Bypass for the grade separation of Sheriffhall Roundabout and £20m investment to support public transport infrastructure improvements identified by the West Edinburgh Transport Appraisal. Work has begun on a comprehensive review of the Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR) and the National Transport Strategy (NTS). The second STPR will be taken forward in the current Parliament and will be a nationwide, multi-modal, objective led and evidence based review of the existing performance and future requirements of Scotland’s national strategic transport networks.

It is the responsibility of NHS Lothian, in conjunction with the local Integrated Joint Boards (IJBs), to develop a capital investment strategy which addresses the requirements for GP and other health related services in the Lothian area. Any additional investment will need to be submitted to the Scottish Government's NHS Capital Investment Group for review and consideration.

Any decision regarding replacing Liberton High School rests with the City of Edinburgh Council. The Education (Scotland) Act 1980 places a statutory responsibility on all local authorities to manage and maintain the school estate across Scotland.

The following table provides details of the number of pharmacy degrees awarded by each of the Scottish Schools of Pharmacy and the number of pharmacists joining the General Pharmaceutical Council’s (GPhC) register each year from 1999 to 2017. The data is provided by the GPhC and is an extract registrant data captured on their recording systems.

The data on the number of registrants joining the GPhC register is based on those registrants for whom a school of pharmacy has been captured in their systems. It is important to note that for older data that preceded the formation of the GPhC (2010), this information may not be complete.

In addition, there is not a direct link between the year of graduation and year of registration. Students graduating in any given year for the time period provided would not be eligible to join the GPhC register until the following year at the earliest because of the requirement to successfully complete a one year pre-registration training and assessment.

Furthermore, for any given year those joining the register could have graduated prior to the previous year as not all graduates immediately commence their pre-registration training. There are also instances where graduates may have undertaken pre-registration in training in other parts of the UK, or abroad in the case for some foreign students.

The Managed Service Network (MSN) – Neurosurgery has developed a brain tumour pathway. A copy of the pathway is available at:

http://www.msn-neuro.scot.nhs.uk/services/pathways/docs/MSN_Brain_Tumour_Pathway_Version_3_9.pdf

Subject to the successful development and implementation of a national eReferral system - details of which can be found at: http://www.msn-neuro.scot.nhs.uk/projects/active-ereferral/ , the MSN intends to launch the pathways throughout Scotland and analyse the variance of compliance. . The MSN will also be auditing the management of patients with brain tumours (benign and malignant), as part of the newly-formed Neurosurgical Research Collaborative (NRC).

The MSN Brain Tumour Pathway states it reflects the NICE guidance currently available at:

NICE: Brain Cancer – Guidelines, Pathways and Quality Standards

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-15929 on‎ 26 April 2018. 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 ”